Outbreak of carprine arthritis-encephalitis in dairy goat flocks

This is a case report on the occurrence of caprine arthritis-encephalitis (CAE) disease among dairy goats in a local farm located in Yeongdong-gun, Chungbuk. Previously, it was reported that the farm experienced intermittent deaths numbering 15 of the 97 goats raised for 5 months. Most of the goats less than 6 months of age were suffering from ataxia and posterior paresis, body tremor and abnormal head posterior. Affected animals frequently had stunted growth and had a rough coat. Goats more than 6 months of age were affected with an insidious, chronic arthritis characterized by articular swelling ('big knee') of the carpal, hock, and stifle joints. Necropsy revealed severely swollen mesenteric lymph nodes, under- flow of 2-3ml synovial fluid in the articular space and fibrous proliferation of synovial membrane. Histopathological examination showed perivascular accumulations of mononuclear inflammatory cells in the white matter of the brain, proliferative synovitis characterized by villous hypertrophy, synovial cell hyperplasia and infiltration by mononuclear inflammatory cells. Pulmonary lesions consists of patchy interstitial pneumonia with hyperplasia of lymphoid tissues and an extensive mononuclear inflammatory cell infiltration into the alveolar septa. Confirmation by nested PCR involves amplification of a 296 bp (lst PCR) and 184 bp (2nd PCR) fragments corresponding to the gag region of the CAE virus. This is the first time CAE has been reported in a local farm in Korea and emphasizes the importances of developing preventive measures against CAE.

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