Neuropathology of experimental swine vesicular disease in pigs

A total of 26 young pigs were inoculated intracerebrally, intravenously or intradermally with the UKG27/72 strain of SVD virus, grown in tissue culture, and killed two, four, eight or 16 days after exposure. Overt nervous symptoms were seen only in pigs inoculated intracerebrally, but all pigs of all groups showed a non-suppurative meningitis and panencephalomyelitis principally affecting the mid- and fore-brain. Ganglioneuritis with intranuclear inclusion bodies in perineuronal amphicytes were found to be the most consistently useful characters for distinguishing SVD from other virus encephalitides of pigs. Spinal radiculitis was a feature of the early stages of CNS involvement and lesions were found also in the optic nerve, retina and cornea.