Pathology and polymerase chain reaction detection of ovine progressive pneumonia (maedi) cases in slaughtered sheep in India

Vet World Vol.10 November-2017 Article-20

Research Article

Veterinary World, 10(11): 1401-1406

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2017.1401-1406

Rahul Singh¹, Pawan Kumar¹, Rajendra Singh¹, Kuldeep Dhama¹, Swati Kumari¹, Jay Prakash Yadav², Gayatri Kashyap¹, Karam Pal Singh³, Vidya Singh¹, and Monalisa Sahoo¹

1. Division of Pathology, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Izatnagar - 243 122, Uttar Pradesh, India.
2. Division of Veterinary Public Health, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Izatnagar - 243 122, Uttar Pradesh, India.
3. Division of Pathology, Centre for Animal Disease Research and Diagnosis, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Izatnagar - 243 122, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Background and Aim: The small ruminant lentiviruses are known to cause maedi-visna (MV) and caprine arthritis - encephalitis in sheep and goats, typically affecting joints, udder, lungs, and the central nervous system. The diagnosis usually involves serology, clinical signs, immunohistochemistry, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In the present study, the histopathologically positive pneumonia cases of MV were confirmed by PCR in lung tissue probably for the first time in India.

Materials and Methods: A total of 888 lungs of adult sheep, aged between 2 and 5 years, were screened during slaughter, of which 121 were found to have pneumonic lesions. The tissues from each pneumonic lung including associated lymph nodes were collected in 10% neutral buffered formalin for histopathology. The frozen tissues of the same were also collected and stored at -20°C for PCR confirmation.

Results: Three of 121 cases of pneumonic lungs of sheep revealed gross and histopathological lesions suggestive of maedi or ovine progressive pneumonia infection. These 3 cases were further confirmed by PCR technique that amplified 291-base pair DNA in the long terminal repeat sequence of MV provirus.

Conclusion: This study suggests the low occurrence of MV virus (MVV) infection in India in naturally affected sheep based on pathomorphological lesions and using the molecular tool of PCR detection of the virus in tissues. Further, a combination of pathomorphology or/and PCR testing might be optimal for detecting the animals infected with MVV. Keywords: histopathology, maedi-visna, ovine progressive pneumonia, polymerase chain reaction, small ruminant lentiviruses.

Keywords: histopathology, maedi-visna, ovine progressive pneumonia, polymerase chain reaction, small ruminant lentiviruses.

How to cite this article: Singh R, Kumar P, Singh R, Dhama K, Kumari S, Yadav JP, Kashyap G, Singh KP, Singh V, Sahoo M (2017) Pathology and polymerase chain reaction detection of ovine progressive pneumonia (maedi) cases in slaughtered sheep in India, Veterinary World, 10(11): 1401-1406.

Received: 24-07-2017 Accepted: 25-10-2017 Published online: 30-11-2017

Corresponding author: Rajendra Singh E-mail: rajendra_singh5747@rediffmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.1401-1406

Copyright: Singh, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.