The Bovine Pulmonary Inflammatory Response: Adjuvant Pneumonitis in Calves

Abstract

Abstract. Twenty one-to two-month-old Holstein, Angus, or Holstein-Angus crossbred calves were given intravenous complete Freund's adjuvant and their lungs were examined at 24 hours to 30 days post-injection. Two calves given intravenous saline served as normal controls. The evolving pulmonary inflammatory response was characterized initially by multifocal vasculitis and acute multifocal exudative pneumonitis which progressed to a granulomatous interstitial pneumonitis by seven days post-injection. Discrete granulomas characterized the lesions in the lungs and lymph nodes at 30 days post-injection, and granulomas also were seen in liver, kidney, and spleen. Clinically, the calves were tachypneic and pyrexic during the first week post-injection. Four calves developed acute pulmonary edema and died during, or shortly after, administration of the adjuvant. This model of experimental pneumonia in calves is similar to complete Freund's adjuvant-induced experimental pneumonia in other species. It is reproducible and predictable in its course of development and resolution, and provides a useful model for studying basic mechanisms of pulmonary inflammatory injury and repair in the bovine lung.In comparison to other domestic species, cattle seem particularly susceptible to inflammatory pulmonary disease, possibly as a consequence of multiple factors including anatomic peculiarities and functional differences in pulmonary defense mechanisms [41]. In order to study the basic mechanisms involved in the development and resolution of acute inflammatory lesions in the bovine lung and their impact on pulmonary clearance mechanisms, it is necessary to utilize a uniformly reproducible, controllable and, ideally, noninfectious experimental model of pulmonary injury.Various infectious agents including Pasteurellu sp. [ 17, 181, parainfluenza virus type 3 [9], infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus [22], and bovine respiratory syncytial virus [27], have been used to induce experimental pneumonia in cattle and calves. The use of these agents, however, necessitates isolation facilities and special precautions in handling of animals and tissues, and the disease produced by such agents often is difficult to reproduce uniformly.A variety of noninfectious agents including 3-methylindole [lo], L-tryptophan [ 13, 371, 4-ipomeanol [ 14, 32, 451 and the "perilla ketone" [25, 461 as well as NO2 gas [ 121 506

Nutritional requirements of the immune response in dairy cattle : A literature study into trade-offs in the transition period and early lactation

“…In 1-2 months old calves, 0.5 mL/kg BW resulted in a strong immune response in the lungs with increased respiration and fever for approximately a week; 4 calves died of acute pulmonary edema (Lay and Slauson, 1982).…”