Caprine arthritis-encephalitis (CAE) is a disease of domestic goats caused by a lentivirus of the family Retroviridae. Since Japan has been assumed to be free from the disease for a long time, there was no information on the disease nor diagnostic methods for it. But in 2002, an outbreak of CAE occurred for the first time in Japan. For the purpose of eradicating CAE, we developed the following diagnostic methods for CAE according to the manual of standards for diagnostic tests and vaccines of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE); 1) an agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test, 2) PCR, 3) virus isolation, and 4) indirect immunofluorescence tests.
We also investigated the prevalence of CAE using the AGID test from the summer of 2002 to the end of 2004 in Japan. Out of a total of 3,102 goats, 605 (19.5%) were positive for the anti-CAEV antibody. The diagnostic tests that we developed would be helpful for the surveillance and eradication of CAEV in Japan.
(Viral Disease Section, Department of Infectious Disease TEL+81-29-838-7841)
Reference:
Konishi et al. (2004) J. Vet. Med. Sci. 66(8):911-917
