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. 1989 Sep 1;30(3):321–327. doi: 10.1186/BF03548038

An Outbreak of Mucosal Disease in a Dairy Herd

Eit utbrot av mucosal disease i ein buskap av mjølkekyr

T Loken 1,✉, H Gamlem 1, O Lysbakken 1
PMCID: PMC8142165  PMID: 2629507

Abstract

An outbreak of mucosal disease (MD) was studied in a dairy herd, comprising 12 cows, 9 heifers and 18 calves. During a period of 1 month, six 5 to 8 month-old calves showed typical signs of MD. They all died or were killed in extremis after 2-8 days with progressively worsening clinical signs. Post mortem lesions were examined in one calf. Non-cytopathogenic MD virus was isolated from serum or tissues from 3 clinically affected calves and from 1 healthy heifer. All cows and heifers except for the viremic one possessed neutralizing antibodies against bovine pestivirus. According to the current MD-pathogenesis concept, the affected calves were probably infected transplacentally during the first half of foetal life with pestivirus from the persistently infected heifer in the herd.

Keywords: cattle, mucosal disease, pestivirus, persistent infection, BVD/MD virus, neutralizing antibodies.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Dr. H. Stenwig, National Veterinary Institute, Oslo, for bacteriological examinations, and to the herd owner for all his assistance and detailed registrations.

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