Experimental Infection of Sheep and Goats with Caprine Arthritis-Encephalitis Virus

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Sir, — The isolation of caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) from the carpal joint of a yearling goat with chronic interstitial pneumonia is reported in this issue of the Journal.⁽³⁾ We wish to report on the experimental infection of sheep and goats with this isolate of CAEV. Two 20-month-old Romney lambs (483, 485) and two 2-month-old feral goat kids (43, 45) were inoculated with CAEV suspension (10^4.0 median tissue culture infective doses [TCID₅₀ml]). Each animal was inoculated with 1.0 ml of virus suspension by each of the following routes: intravenous, intracerebral into the right cerebral hemisphere and intra-articularly into the right radio-carpal joint.⁽⁴⁾ An additional control lamb (490) and goat kid (44) were inoculated in identical fashion with cell culture fluid from uninfected goat synovial membrane cells.