Chronic Generalized Obliterative Arteriopathy in Cattle: A Sequel to Sheep-Associated Malignant Catarrhal Fever

Abstract

Abstract. Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) in cattle is generally associated with a short clinical course and a high case fatality rate (90-95%). The lesions in cattle that survive acute MCF for a prolonged period or appear to recover have not been documented. In a naturally occurring outbreak of MCF in a herd of beef cattle in Wyoming, 7 of 84 yearling heifers (8.3% of replacement herd) and 2 of 230 cows (0.9% of cow herd) developed clinical signs of pyrexia, mucopurulent discharge, bilateral keratitis, and weight loss following contact with ewes that had lambed 34-62 days earlier. Six of 9 affected cattle were examined postmortem following clinical signs (CS) that developed 2-150 days earlier. Three cattle with CS for ≤ 39 days had lesions of regional lymphadenopathy and widespread severe segmental lymphoid arteritis-phlebitis that were typical of acute MCF, and proliferative intimal lesions were present in a small proportion of arteries at days 20 and 39 of CS. By contrast, 3 cattle that survived to 90, 105, and 150 days after clinical onset had distinctive arterial lesions in multiple organs, characterized by proliferative concentric fibrointimal plaques, disrupted inner elastic lamina, focally atrophic tunica media, and vasculitis of variable severity. Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural examination of intimal plaques identified the predominant cellular component to be smooth muscle cells with a contractile phenotype. No viral structures were seen. Serologic studies, using a competitive inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (CI-ELISA) that detects antibody to an epitope broadly conserved among isolates of the MCF virus, found that 2 chronically affected cattle were serologically positive between days 42 and 100 of CS, with seroconversion in 1 animal between days 52 and 73 of CS. Seroprevalence was 7.9% in the 76 remaining healthy animals of the replacement heifer herd and 40% (75% in adult sheep and 4% in lambs) in the in-contact sheep flock 77 days after onset of CS in the index case. This episode suggests that, in addition to the common and well recognized acute form of MCF in cattle, this viral infection encompasses a disease spectrum that includes chronic disease and partial to "complete" clinical recovery, and in recovered animals chronic obliterative arteriopathy is the preeminent lesion. The MCF CI-ELISA may be helpful in identifying such cattle and in epidemiologic studies of MCF outbreaks.Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is an acute fulminating disease of cattle and many wild ruminant speties. 36 The case fatality rate in susceptible species is high, 35 and the disease course is short once clinical signs (CS) develop. 36Two epidemiologic forms of MCF in cattle are recognized. The wildebeest-associated form, which occurs in Africa and in zoological collections and game farms

Malignant Catarrhal Fever in Bison, Acute and Chronic Cases

“…The vascular lesions in the 1 bison that survived an acute episode of MCF were similar to those found in cattle that have survived 90-150 days. 9,10 The chronic vascular lesions in this bison support the clinical diagnosis of MCF made at the time of the acute illness. Vasculitis probably began at the time of initial clinical signs and progressed during the whole period of illness.…”

“…7 Chronic MCF in cattle is characterized by lymphocytic arteritis and arteriosclerosis. 9,10 In this report, we describe the clinical signs and morphologic lesions in 10 bison that died after 1-11 days of illness and in 1 bison that survived 80 days after acute onset of MCF. Infection of these bison with OHV-2 was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for OHV-2 sequences.…”

“…13 Recently, cases have been documented where cattle have survived 150 days and 2.5 years after onset of disease. 9,10 There are 2 forms of MCF, wildebeest associated and sheep associated. Cattle that develop wildebeest-associated MCF are infected with a gamma herpesvirus, alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AHV-1), which is carried by wildebeest.…”

Gammaherpesvirus Infection in Semidomesticated Reindeer (Rangifer Tarandus Tarandus): A Cross-Sectional, Serologic Study in Northern Norway

“…Nevertheless, chronic cases and recovery have been reported (Baxter et al, 1993;O'Toole et al, 1995O'Toole et al, , 1997. The disease is characterized by lymphoproliferation, vasculitis, and erosive-ulcerative lesions in the mucosa and skin (Heuschele and Reid, 2001).…”

Sheep associated malignant catarrhal fever: an emerging disease of bovids in India

“…Deer mostly die within 48 h of the appearance of the first symptoms and bison within three days [61]. In contrast, cattle usually survive a week or more post infection [33] although chronic cases have been described in cattle and bison [59,75]. Recovery from MCF is rare, nevertheless, there are reports of recovery in cattle that remained persistently infected [5,60].…”