Deer mastadenovirus B pneumonia in a white-tailed deer fawn

A 7-mo-old farmed white-tailed deer fawn (Odocoileus virginianus) died after several weeks of progressive deterioration associated with endoparasitism and respiratory signs. A field autopsy was performed, and lung tissue was submitted for histologic examination. The findings were consistent with necrosuppurative bronchointerstitial pneumonia with intranuclear viral inclusions. Immunofluorescence using fluorescently labeled polyclonal antibodies to bovine adenovirus 3 and 5 was positive. To rule out cross-reactivity with other adenoviruses, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections were submitted for genome sequence analysis, which revealed a 99.6% match to Deer mastadenovirus B (formerly Odocoileus adenovirus 2, OdAdV2). To our knowledge, natural clinical disease associated with OdAdV2 has not been reported previously.