1. Diagnosis of the nervous form of maedi-visna infection with a high frequency in sheep in Castilla y León, Spain.
- Author
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Benavides, J., Gómez, N., Gelmetti, D., Ferreras, M. C., García-Pariente, C., Fuertes, M., García-Marín, J. F., and Pérez, V.
- Subjects
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MAEDI-visna disease , *VIRUS diseases in sheep , *CENTRAL nervous system diseases , *IMMUNOHISTOCHEMISTRY - Abstract
Between 1997 and March 2004, the nervous form, or visna, of maedi-visna infection was diagnosed in 71 of 1631 sheep (4.35 per cent) examined in the Castilla y León region of Spain, of which 634 had shown nervous signs. The presence of the virus was confirmed by immunohistochemistry and in some cases by PCR on frozen-thawed or paraffin-embedded tissue samples. The main clinical signs were hindleg ataxia and paresis, but blindness or nystagmus were also observed. Thirty-three of the affected sheep (46.5 per cent) were two years old or younger. The affected sheep showed variable degrees of a non-suppurative meningoencephalitis, and immunohistochemistry identified positive cells in all cases, with no relation to the intensity of the inflammatory lesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006
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