ABSTRACT
This report investigated the cause of cattle mortality in two farms in Southern Brazil. The tissues of one animal from each farm (animals #1 and #2) respectively were used in pathological and molecular investigations to determine the possible cause of death. The principal pathological findings observed in animal #1 were pulmonary, myocardial, and encephalitic hemorrhages with vasculitis, and lymphoplasmacytic interstitial pneumonia with proliferative vascular lesions (PVL). The main pathological findings observed in animal #2 were purulent bronchopneumonia, hemorrhagic myocarditis, and lymphoplasmacytic interstitial pneumonia with PVL. An immunohistochemical assay detected intralesional antigens of a malignant catarrhal fever virus (MCFV) from multiple tissues of animal #2 while PCR confirmed that the MCFV amplified was ovine gammaherpesvirus 2 (OvGHV2), genus Macavirus, subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae; OvGHV2 was also amplified from multiple tissues of animal #1. Furthermore, PCR assays amplified Histophilus somni DNA from multiple fragments of both animals. However, the nucleic acids of Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, Mycoplasma bovis, bovine respiratory syncytial virus, bovine alphaherpesvirus virus 1 and 5, bovine coronavirus, and bovine parainfluenza virus 3 were not amplified from any of the tissues analyzed, suggesting that these pathogens did not participate in the development of the lesions herein described. These findings demonstrated that both animals were concomitantly infected by H. somni and OvGHV2 and developed the septicemic and encephalitic manifestations of H. somni. Furthermore, the interstitial pneumonia observed in cow #2 was more likely associated with infection by OvGHV2.