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European sporadic bovine encephalitis (ESBE) is a frequent diagnosis in neurologically diseased cattle, but its etiology remained unresolved. Using in-situ hybridization, we have detected a recently discovered neurotropic bovine astrovirus in historical tissues in a high proportion of brain samples of affected cattle. Our results suggest that astroviruses were already involved in the pathogenesis of the disease several decades ago, but have gone undetected.