Experimental infection of lambs with ovine adenovirus isolate RTS-151: lesions

Young lambs, inoculated with ovine adenovirus isolate RTS-151, were killed sequentially (to postinoculation day 21), and their morphologic lesions were studied. Lesions were found only in the respiratory tract and were most severe in the terminal airways. Many cells of the respiratory epithelium had severe cytomegaly and karyomegaly with intranuclear inclusions. Desquamation of affected cells was accompanied by hyperplasia of airway and alveolar epithelium and by accumulation of necrotic cellular debris and neutrophils in terminal airways and alveoli. Virus replicated in the nucleus of enlarged epithelial cells in the airways, but not in alveolar epithelium. Intranuclear inclusions representing viral replication progressed from clumps of finely granular material without virions to a granular material with virions and finally to a dense inclusion with numerous virions.