Immunohistochemical study on Respiratory Syncytial Virus antigen (RSV) in Pneumonic Goat Lungs

In the present study, in which the main goal was to determine the prevalence of RSV infection in goats slaughtered in Garmsar slaughterhouse, a total of 402 goat were subjected to postslaughter inspection. Among them, 67 (16.7%) cases were found having macrosdopic lesions of pneumonia particularly on the cranioventral lobs. Lesions were more frequently encountered in anteroventral lobes than caudal lobes. With the exception of 18 cases in which parasitic pneumonia and catarrhal and purulent bronchopneumonia were observed, the remaining 49 cases with macroscopic lesions of interstitial pneumonia and bronchointerstitial pneumonia used for RSV antigen detection. Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded lung tissue samples were immunohistochemically stained using routine avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex techniques to detect RSV antigens. In the present study, out of 49 cases with interstitial pneumonia and bronchointerstitial pneumonia, in 9 cases (18.36%) RSV viral antigens was detected, which were mainly found in the cytoplasm of bronchiolar epithelial cells, type II pneumocytes, and less frequently in the epithelial cells of bronchial glands, syncytial cells, alveolar macrophages, and lymphocytes and plasma cells. In conclusion, despite of the determining the prevalence of RSV viral antigens in pneumonic lungs of goats in the Garmsar region, a possible role of RSV in the induction of interstitial pneumonia in goats was suggested.