The brain of an one year old male calf which died with signs of neurological disease was submitted to the laboratory for rabies diagnosis. Microscopical findings included moderate mielitis, mild meningoencephalitis with perivascular cell cuffing and Negri inclusion bodies in Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. Rabies virus infection was further confirmed by the direct fluorescent antibody test as well as by mouse inoculation. In addition, a herpesvirus was isolated from brain tissues. The isolate was antigenic and genetically characterized as bovine herpesvirus type 5 (BHV-5). It was not possible to determine whether BHV-5 played an active role in the outcome of the infection, since, the virus might have been present in a latent form in neural tissues. This is the first report of a mixed rabies/ BHV-5 infection in calves.
Bovine herpesvirus type 5; BHV-5; rabies
