An outbreak of mucosal disease in a dairy herd |
| |
Authors: | T. Loken H. Gamlem O. Lysbakken |
| |
Affiliation: | National Veterinary Institute, P. O. Box 8156, Dep., N-0033 Oslo 1, Oslo, Norway |
| |
Abstract: | An outbreak of mucosal disease (MD) was studied in a dairy herd, comprising 12 cows, 9 heifers and 18 calves. During a period of 1 month, six 5 to 8 month-old calves showed typical signs of MD. They all died or were killed in extremis after 2-8 days with progressively worsening clinical signs. Post mortem lesions were examined in one calf. Non-cytopathogenic MD virus was isolated from serum or tissues from 3 clinically affected calves and from 1 healthy heifer. All cows and heifers except for the viremic one possessed neutralizing antibodies against bovine pestivirus. According to the current MD-pathogenesis concept, the affected calves were probably infected transplacentally during the first half of foetal life with pestivirus from the persistently infected heifer in the herd. |
| |
Keywords: | cattle mucosal disease pestivirus persistent infection BVD/MD virus neutralizing antibodies. |
|
|