Pathogenesis of digestive tract lesions in duck plague.

White Pekin ducklings were inoculated orally with duck plague virus. Tissues from the digestive tract were collected daily after inoculation and examined by light, electron and fluorescent microscopy. There were necrosis and degeneration of stratified squamous epithelium of the esophagus and cloaca, epithelium of intestinal crypt and esophageal submucosal glands, macrophages in the lamina propria, and submucosal fibrocytes and lymphocytes. Submucosal hemorrhages occurred after degeneration and necrosis of lymphocytes, macrophages, fibrocytes and epithelial cells. Viral antigens were detected in all these cells by use of fluorescein-labeled antibodies. With the electron microscope, nucleocapsids were seen in the nuclei, budding through the inner nuclear membrane; enveloped virions were present in cytoplasmic vacuoles of macrophages, epithelial cells and fibrocytes. In lymphocytes, nucleocapsids were also in the nuclei, but karyorrhexis and cytolysis occurred before viral maturation was completed.