Isolamento e avaliação do comportamento do vírus ORF em células de córnea fetal caprina e identificação pela Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase

The control of the infection in endemic regions is performed with vaccines, however there are limitations in the vaccine production due to the difficulties in replicating the virus in cell cultures. This work was conducted so as to isolate and evaluate the behavior of ECV samples in fetal goat cell line cornea (CorFC) naturally immortalized. Crust samples from 22 sheep and seven goats presenting the clinical symptoms of EC from the states of Pernambuco, Bahia, Sergipe and Paraíba, were inoculated in CorFC monolayers and identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers for amplification of a fragment of235 bp of gene B2L envelope ECV. Eleven samples were submitted to seven consecutive passes, at weekly intervals. Cytopathic effect (CPE) was observed in all passages, after24 hours post-infection, characterized by cell rounding, syncytial fusion with training, inclusion and cytoplasmic vacuolization. Thus, CorFC cell cultures proved highly permissible to ECV replication with small variation among viral samples. The PCR technique can be an efficient method used for confirmation of ECV infection in clinical samples.