ABSTRACT
Maedi-Visna is a chronic and progressive disease of sheep. The etiologic agent Maedi-Visna Virus (MVV) is a lentivirus belonging to the Retroviridae family. The main manifestations of the inflammation induced by MVV are progressive weight loss, interstitial pneumonia, encephalitis, mastitis, arthritis, and lymphadenopathy. With the objective of identifying MaediVisna Virus and suggestive lung lesions of the disease, samples of blood and lung fragments of 223 sheep were collected in slaughterhouses of the metropolitan area of Fortaleza, State of Ceará, Brazil. The serum samples were submitted to the agar-gel immunodiffusion test (AGIDT) using a kit diagnosis for Maedi-Visna supplied by the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco. The lung fragments were submitted to the processing of classic histologic and immunohistochemistry. It was verified that 11 (4.93%) were positive for the IDGA. The lung microscopic lesions were characterized by thickening of the interalveolar septa, diffuse and multifocal infiltration of lymphocytes, atelectasis and lymphoid aggregates. Corcerning the immunohistochemistry technique the presence of a viric protein was verified in cells of the interalveolar septa. It was therefore concluded that the microscopic lesions found characterize a pneumonia interstitial and that the immunohistochemistry technique allowed for the demonstration of the viral agent naturally in lung fragments of infected sheep.
KEY WORDS:
Lentiviruses; histopathology; immunohistochemistry and Maedi-Visna.
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