Abstract
An upper respiratory disease characterized by the severe discharge of nasal secretions and sneezing broke out among piglets 6 to 25days old on a pig farm in Kitami, Hokkaido. A total of 135 piglets of 14 litters were affected with it, and 4 of them died. The nasal cavities of the affected piglets were filled with a large amount of grayish and viscid secretions. Histopathologically, the epithelialcells of the tubuloalveolar glands were enlarged and necrotized. Large basophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were present in them, suggesting that the disease was inclusion body rhinitis. Porcine cytomegaloviral antigens were demonstrated in the turbinate mucosa and alveolar macrophages of the affected piglets by fluorescent antibody staining. The virus was isolated from those cells by inoculating them into alveolar macrophage cultures obtained from healthy pigs. This is the first report on the isolation of porcine cytomegalovirus from piglets with inclusion body rhinitis in Japan.
