Immunohistological diagnosis of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD)

In the present study the diagnostic use of a biotinylated serum from an immune rabbit was investigated by means of an Avidin-Biotin-Complex (ABC)-Peroxidase method on paraffin sections. 15 cases of RHD which had been verified histologically and/or by haemagglutination test (HA), 4 suspected cases and 3 cases without history of RHD were included (cases 1 to 22). From 5 prospective cases a wider tissue range was examined (cases 23 to 25 and 29 to 30). Furthermore lungs, liver and placenta of 3 fetuses from a RHD affected dam were investigated (cases 26 to 28). The 20 typical cases had intense intranuclear and diffuse intracytoplasmic immunostaining of hepatocytes, predominantly in the periportal areas. In some cases there was also positive staining of macrophages in the lungs (4 cases), spleen (4 cases) and in lymph nodes (1 case). Positive granular staining in the renal mesangial cells of the glomeruli was observed in 1 case. No positive staining was observed in the 3 negative cases. In contrast to other reports (4), crossreactivity of these antigens to Porcine Parvovirus (PPV) could not be confirmed. Furthermore the RHD virus (RHDV) seems not to crossreact with Feline and Bovine Parvoviruses.