Viral plasmacytosis (Aleutian disease) of mink resembling human collagen disease.

A disease in mink has been discovered that has many of the features of collagen diseases in man. Affected animals suffer from wasting with leukopenia and thrombocytopenia as well as plasma cell infiltration, hypergammaglobulinemia, glomerulonephritis, arteritis and amyloidosis. Cell-free filtrates and ultracentrifugates from diseased animals induced the disease in normal mink, and aleutian genotypes were unusually susceptible to infection. This genotype was characterized by abnormal lysosomal structures in all the granule-forming cells, resembling the Chediak-Higashi syndrome of man. Anti-gamma-globulin factors similar to human rheumatoid factors were reported, although tests for antibodies such as ANF and LE factors have been negative. Arteritis and glomerulonephritis lesions stained positively for gamma-globulin, and Coombs-type sensitized red cells have been detected in the majority of affected mink. Some mink develop a monodispersion of hypergammaglobulinemia resembling the serum protein changes in human myeloma. These studies highlight genetic, immunological and microbiological causative factors in a mink disorder resembling human collagen disease.