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Title: FATAL INFECTIONS IN LAMBS ASSOCIATED WITH A NOVEL ADENOVIRUS

Author
item DEBEY, BRAD - KS STATE UNIV., MANHATTAN
item Lehmkuhl, Howard

Submitted to: American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/18/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Six serotypes of ovine adenovirus have been isolated and characterized from sheep. Limited serologic studies in the United States indicate that the seroprevalence of sheep to all six serotypes, plus serotypes 2 and 7 of bovine adenovirus, is common. Severe, uncomplicated disease, however, is rarely reported as a result of adenoviral infections in sheep, although serotype 6 may be an important contributor to respiratory disease in young lambs. Adenovirus infections were diagnosed in 3 nursing lambs in a group of 120 ewes during the spring lambing season of 2000. Affected lambs ranged from 9 to 25 days of age, and had a short duration of gastro- intestinal and systemic clinical signs prior to death. Lesions were found in multiple organs, including multifocal hepatic necrosis, multifocal acute interstitial nephritis, and epithelial necrosis and villus atrophy in the small intestine. Intranuclear basophilic adenoviral inclusions were identified in renal endothelial cells of affected lambs; however, not all lambs that died of the adenoviral infection had identifiable intranuclear inclusions. The isolated adenovirus was genetically unrelated to known ovine adenoviruses and was neutralized in vitro with antiserum against a newly recognized adenovirus proposed as the prototype strain for goat adenovirus serotype 1.