Isolamento e avaliação do comportamento de amostras do vírus ectima contagioso em cultivo de células de córnea fetal caprina

Abstract

Contagious ectima is a severe and proliferartive virus among ovine and caprine caused by the contagious ectima virus (ECV) of the Parapoxvirus genus. The control of the infection in endemic regions is done with vaccines, however there are limitations in the vaccine production due to the difficulties in replicating the virus in cell cultures. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the behavior of ECV samples in primary cultures of fetal caprine cornea cells, a system of cultures yet untested for the replication of ECV. Crust samples from nine sheep and two goats from the states of Bahia, Sergipe and Paraiba and presenting the clinical symptoms of EC were inoculated in monolayers of the cells, during seven consecutive passages at weekly intervals. During all the occasions we observed, after 24 hours of infection, the cytopathic effect (CE) characterized by cell rounding, fusion with the formation of small sincicia, cytoplasmatic inclusion and vacuolation. The intensity of detachment from the cell layers ranged from 25% to 100% which varied according to the sample. We concluded that the primary cell cultures of the fetal caprine cornea appeared highly permissible to replication of ECV and the isolated samples of ECV appeared to adapt to the utilized culture with slight variation among samples.