Ocular involvement in BDV-infected rabbits and primates

A multifocal appearance and a preferential location in the posterior pole of the fundus in the human eye illustrate the clinical manifestation of some retinal pigment epitheliopathies. The etiology of these entities such as "acute pigment epithelitis" and "multifocal placoid pigment-epitheliopathy" as well as "Vogt-Koyanagi-Syndrome" is unknown, however, immune processes or virus infection has been claimed to be of pathogenetic importance. In Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome encephalitic lesions are detectable in the brain as well as in the retina. No eyes with acute pigment-epithelitis or acute multifocal placoid pigment-epithliopathy as well as Vogt-Harada-syndrome were investigated histologically till now. In our studies of experimental Borna disease in rabbits and rhesus monkeys we found encephalitic lesions and a highly reproducable multifocal retinopathy preferentially located in the posterior pole of the eye.