Ovine progressive pneumonia: pathologic and virologic studies on the naturally occurring disease

Pathologic and virologic studies were conducted on 13 mature ewes with serum precipitin antibodies to progressive pneumonia virus (PPV). Pulmonary lesions of ovine progressive pneumonia were found in 4 sheep, a meningoencephalitis resembling visna in 1 sheep, chronic proliferative carpal arthritis in 2, and massive lymphoid proliferation in the mammary gland in 3. Virus producing cytopathic effect typical of PPV was isolated from the lungs, mediastinal lymph node, spleen, and choroid plexus of 4 sheep and from the carpal synovium of 2 sheep with chronic carpal arthritis. Three viral isolates selected for further study were antigenically related to visna virus by immunofluorescence and immunodiffusion, but these 3 isolates were not neutralized by antisera to reference strains of visna virus. Seemingly, infection of sheep by ovine retroviruses is common in the United States, and these viruses are capable of causing disease in more than 1 organ system.