An outbreak of small ruminant lentivirus in a Swedish dairy goat herd

Abstract

AbstractSmall ruminant lentivirus causes severe economic losses, and negatively affects animal welfare in goat herds across the world. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical and pathological consequences of the disease in an affected goat herd, as well as to sequence the virus in infected animals. Seventy‐six percent of the sampled animals were small ruminant lentivirus seropositive. The most prominent signs of disease were respiratory signs found in clinical examinations and chronic interstitial pneumonia found at postmortem examination. All animals with pneumonia also showed evidence of infection with Muellerius capillaris. The cell count in bulk milk was high and most likely related to the high small ruminant lentivirus seroprevalence within the herd. Small ruminant lentivirus was successfully detected in the lungs, bronchial lymph nodes and udder tissues using polymerase chain reaction. The phylogenetic analysis of the obtained sequences revealed the highest similarity with small ruminant lentiviruses in group C, which consists of viruses which have previously been found in Norwegian goats and sheep.