Border disease of sheep: the disease in the newborn, adolescent and adult. |
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| Authors: | M M Sawyer |
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| Institution: | Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of California, Davis 95616. |
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| Abstract: | Border disease (BD) is a condition of newborn sheep that results from congenital infection by a non-cytopathic pestivirus occurring during the first half of gestation. The expression of the virus is largely determined by the age of the fetus at the time of infection, producing four distinct disease syndromes: (1) early embryonic death, (2) abortion and stillbirth, (3) birth of lambs with malformations, and (4) birth of small, weak lambs, lacking characteristic clinical signs, but bearing features of immunosuppression. The effects of the virus infection during the developmental stages of the fetus are most apparent as distinctive clinical signs at the time of birth but a state of specific immuno-tolerance with associated virus persistence remains for the lifetime of the sheep. Although the clinical signs disappear with time, some effects of virus persistence may continue into adolescence and often into adulthood. Characteristic lesions are found in the nervous, endocrine, skeletal and integumentary, and immune systems. |
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