Van der Lugt, Jaco J.Cilliers, C.Smit, Marie M.E.Verwoerd, Daniel Wynand2013-12-132013-12-1320131995Van der Lugt, JJ, Coetzer, JAW, Smit, MME & Cilliers, C 1995, 'The diagnosis of Wesselsbron disease in a new-born lamb by immunohistochemical staining of viral antigen’. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 143-146.0330-2465http://hdl.handle.net/2263/32932The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.Wesselsbron disease (WSL) was diagnosed in a 2-d-old lamb on a farm in the north-eastern Free State Province where a few abortions and neonatal deaths occurred in sheep in April 1994. The liver of the lamb was slightly swollen and orange-brown and, microscopically, it revealed single or small groups of necrotic hepatocytes that were randomly scattered throughout the lobules. Other histopathologic hepatic lesions included the presence of acidophilic bodies, intranuclear inclusion bodies in a few hepatocytes, neutrophils in the parenchyma, mild Kupffer-cell and bile-ductular proliferation and infiltration of mixed inflammatory cells in the portal tracts. Immunohistochemical staining of sections of formalin-fixed specimens of the liver with polyclonal antibody against WSL virus revealed positive staining in acidophilic bodies, cytoplasmic fragments of necrotic liver cells, the cytoplasm of degenerated hepatocytes and, rarely, in intranuclear inclusions. Positive staining was also obtained in liver sections from two newborn lambs experimentally infected with WSL virus. The results of this investigation showed that the immunohistochemical staining of sections of formalin-fixed liver can be used to confirm the diagnosis of WSL in new-born lambs.en© ARC-Onderstepoort (original). © University of Pretoria. Dept of Library Services (digital).Veterinary medicineDiagnosisWesselsbron diseaseNew-born lambImmunohistochemical stainingVeterinary medicine -- South AfricaSheep -- Diseases -- South AfricaArticle