Chicken anaemia virus inoculated by the oral route causes lymphocyte depletion in the thymus in 3-week-old and 6-week-old chickens.

There have been many reports of the severe clinical disease and pathology seen in young chicks that have been vertically infected with chicken anaemia virus (CAV). The disease is characterized by anaemia, and atrophy of the thymus and bone marrow. However, while it has been suggested that horizontally acquired infections of older birds are common, to date there has been no description in the literature of the pathology of this type of infection. In the present study, 3-week-old and 6-week-old chickens were infected by the oral route, as is likely to occur naturally, and a wide range of tissues were examined immunocytochemically for the presence of CAV antigen. Histological examination was carried out on the thymus, spleen and bone marrow of all birds, and on all other tissue samples in which CAV antigen was found. CAV antigen and associated pathological change were detected in the thymus of both 3-week-old and 6-week-old birds. However, CAV antigen was rarely found in other tissues, which is in contrast to what is found in birds infected when 1-day-old. In particular, very few infected cells were found in the bone marrow. Anaemia and bone marrow atrophy, which are typically found in chicks infected vertically or when 1-day-old, did not develop in the 3-week-old or 6-week-old birds. The findings of this study show that CAV is capable of infecting thymocytes of older birds, in contrast to previous belief, and that it is associated with lymphocyte depletion. There was only limited evidence of viral replication in the other tissues examined.