A disease affecting cattle, sheep, goats, and wild ungulates in parts of Africa and certain tropical islands, which is a vasculitis resulting in pericardial and pleural effusion, haemorrhage into the tissues, and fever, often with prominent neurological signs, and is caused by the rickettsia-like bacterium Cowdria ruminantium, transmitted by the ticks of the genus Amblyomma (bont ticks).