Border disease in a flock of Minnesota sheep

A flock problem affecting newborn lambs on a Minnesota farm was investigated. The lambs had hairy fleece and rhythmic tremors, and were unthrifty. Histologic examination revealed hypomyelinization of the CNS and hypertrophy of primary follicles in the skin. A virus antigenically related to bovine viral diarrhea virus was isolated. Serum neutralization showed that a large number of flock ewes had much higher titers to bovine viral diarrhea virus than did control animals.