J Vet Sci.  2008 Mar;9(1):15-23. 10.4142/jvs.2008.9.1.15.

Lesions in the thymus and bone marrow in chicks with experimentally induced chicken infectious anemia disease

• Kuscu B
• Gurel A

• KMID: 1102949
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2008.9.1.15

Abstract

One-day-old SPF chicks were inoculated with the Cux-l strain of chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV), and the clinical development of disease and its macroscopic and microscopic alterations in the thymus and bone marrow, were observed. Tissue sections of thymus and bone marrow were stained using the streptavidin-biotin peroxidase method and examined under light microscope for evaluation of antigenic intensities in tissues. Those findings were then compared with blood parameters and ELISA results obtained through collected sera during sacrifice procedures. We sought to determine: the localization of viral antigens in thymus and bone marrow tissues after inoculation, the correlation between antigen intensities and hematologic, serologic and histopathologic findings, definitive diagnostic criteria using histopathologic and immunoperoxidase methods, and the reliability of these methods in the diagnosis of CIAV infection. For this purpose, 83, one-day-old SPF chicks were used. The birds were divided into experimental (n = 52) and control (n = 26) groups. A virus dose of TCID50 of 100,000/ml was administered intramuscularly to every bird in the experimental group. Based on the results of this study, we have suggested that clinical examination, along with macroscopic and microscopic evaluation of the thymus and bone marrow, maybe undertaken starting from day 7 post-inoculation (PI). ELISA, might be of value, as it might give consistent results starting from day 14 PI. However, the most reliable results were obtained through examination of thymus and bone marrow sections from infected birds stained by immunoperoxidase technique, as early as day 4 PI.

Keyword

bone marrow; chicken infectious anemia; histopathology; immunohistopathology; thymus

MeSH Terms

Animals
Bone Marrow/*pathology
*Chicken anemia virus
Chickens
Circoviridae Infections/pathology/*veterinary
Immunoenzyme Techniques
Poultry Diseases/*pathology
Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms
Thymus Gland/*pathology

Figure

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  Fig. 1 (A) Normal appearance of the thymus of a bird from the control group sacrificed on day 12. Scale bar = 200 µm. (B) Depletion of the cortical thymocytes and medulla-like appearance of the thymic cortex in the thymus section of a bird from the experimental group sacrificed on day 12. Scale bar = 200 µm. (C) Normal appearance of the bone marrow of a bird from the control group sacrificed on day 10. Scale bar = 100 µm. (D) A prominent decrease in the number of cells in the bone marrow of a bird from the experimental group sacrificed on day 10. Scale bar = 100 µm. H&E stain.

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  Fig. 2 (A) Abundant antigen-specific staining in the cortex and, to a lesser extent, in the medulla of the thymus section of an experimental bird sacrificed on day 10. Scale bar = 100 µm. (B) Antigen-specifically stained cells both in the depleted cortical and medullar zones of the thymus section of an experimental bird sacrificed on day 12. Scale bar = 200 µm. (C) Antigen-specifically stained large hemocytoblasts in the bone marrow section of an experimental bird sacrificed on day 8. Scale bar = 100 µm. (D) Antigen-specifically stained hemocytoblasts and stem cells at different stages of differentiation in the bone marrow section of an experimental bird sacrificed on day 10. Scale bar = 50 µm. Immunoperoxidase stain.

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