Detection and multigenic characterization of a herpesvirus associated with malignant catarrhal fever in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from Missouri.

ABSTRACT: Between 1998 and 2001, tissues from four captive white-tailed deer were observed to have histologic lesions of systemic lymphocytic vasculitis. These lesions suggested malignant catarrhal fever, although epizootic hemorrhagic disease and bluetongue were included in the differential diagnosis. Initial diagnostic efforts, including virus isolation and reverse transcription-PCR for epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus and bluetongue virus, failed to identify an etiologic agent. However, consensus primer PCR targeted to the herpesvirus DNA polymerase gene detected viral genomic DNA in each of these four cases. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the amplified product demonstrated that the detected virus was identical over the compared region to the recently described malignant catarrhal fever virus

SUBMITTER: Kleiboeker SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC140372 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature