ABSTRACT
Caprine arthritis encephalitis is a rather commom viral disease affecting dairy goats. The introduction of infected animals in the herd is an important form of dissemination, especially due to difficulties in getting an infection diagnosis in its early stages. The objective this study was to evaluate the risks of CAE dissemination through sales of young animals soronegative to the infection. Forty-six animals of the Saanen breed, approximately one year old, were used in the test, all of them either sons or grandsons of the CAE soropositive animals. The animals were clinically monitored for a 1 years period, and submitted to 2 agarose gel immunodifusion (IDGA) tests for detection of antiCAEV antibodies, performed at 6-month intervals. At the end of that period, the animals were submitted to the nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR-nested) test for detection of proviral DNA in monocitys. In the serological tests, only 1 animal showed a positive result in the second exam, while in the PCR-nested 35 animals (76.08%) were positive. The present results support the suspicion that the acquisition of young animals from property with a history of CAE poses a high risk for dissemination of the disease, particularly when the AGID test is the only method used to diagnose the infection when animals are purchased.
KEY WORDS
Lentivirus; kids goats; PCR; AGID
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