Immunohistopathology of calf pneumonia induced by endobronchial inoculation with bovine adenovirus 3.

Three 1-week-old and three 3-month-old Holstein calves that had received colostrum were inoculated endobronchially with bovine adenovirus 3 (BAV-3). The gross and histologic lesions in these six infected calves were localized mainly in the right caudal lobe of the lung and were closely associated with the site of the deposition of the inoculum. The pneumonic lesions were severe necrotizing bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and alveolitis, accompanied by infiltration of inflammatory cells and proliferation of type 2 pneumocytes. Intranuclear inclusion bodies, BAV-3 antigen, and virus particles were detected in the degenerated epithelial cells in the 1-week-old but not the 3-month-old calves. After infection, the total cell count in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid cells was increased. The results of BAV-3 isolation from BAL fluid were correlated with the detection of intranuclear inclusion bodies in the desquamated epithelial cells in the BAL fluid cells from the right caudal lobe but not in cells from the left caudal lobe. CD8+ T lymphocytes in the pneumonic lesion were found only in the 3-month-old infected calves. The difference in the immunopathologic reactions between the 1-week-old and the 3-month-old infected calves may be attributed to differences in immune system development.