Wesselsbron disease : a cause of congenital porencephaly and cerebellar hypoplasia in calves

Fifteen pregnant cows were inoculated subcutaneously and intravenously between 101-147 days of gestation with the wild-type Wesselsbron disease virus. In addition, 2 foetuses were injected directly through the uterine wall after surgical exposure of the pregnant horn. The clinical symptoms, viraemia and serology in the cows are reported, as also the gross- and histopathology and the virological and serological results of the calves and foetuses. Abortion was not an important manifestation of experimental Wesselsbron disease in cows, as it occurred in 3 animals only. Apart from a short temperature reaction in some cows no other clinical symptoms were recorded. A viraemia was not always present in these cows and, when detected, was of low magnitude and short duration. One cow, in which the foetus was inoculated at 115 days of gestation, aborted at 231 days. The foetus showed marked porencephaly and cerebellar hypoplasia.This article has been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-Format

Lesions resulting from inoculation of porcine foetuses with porcine parvovirus

In utero inoculation of 15 sows at various stages of gestation with a local strain of porcine parvovirus (PPV) resulted in resorption, abortion or the birth of weak, dead, or mummified foetuses. Histopathological lesions observed in foetuses of sows slaughtered at various post-inoculation intervals consisted of a perivascular inflammatory reaction primarily observed in the brain and kidneys. The presence and extent of the inflammatory reaction were dependent upon the age of the foetus at the time of infection. In the sow a perivascular inflammatory reaction was found in the endometrium, while the larger blood-vessel walls were infiltrated by lymphocytes, and it is suggested that these vascular lesions may contribute to the reproductive failures associated with PPV.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 300dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format