A Post-Vaccinal Inclusion Body Encephalitis in Dogs

Abstract

Two separate episodes of an encephalitis occurred in dogs after the administration of a few batches of a combined, live attenuated distemper/hepatitis virus vaccine. The lesions consisted of eosinophilic intranuclear and intracytoplasmic inclusions in large neurones, together with a nonsuppurative encephalitis and malacia of the ventral pontine gray matter. The presence of nucleocapsid, indistinguishable from that seen in distemper infection, indicates that a distemper or distemper-like virus was directly involved.