Electron microscopy of bursa of Fabricius of chicks infected with a field strain of infectious bursal disease virus.

Chicks were infected in the bursa with a field strain of infectious bursal disease virus. Inter- and intracellular edema, condensation and margination of nuclear chromatin, increased number of lysosomes in macrophages, and lymphocytolytic changes appeared earliest by 8 hours post infection. Inclusions containing spheroid to hexagonal virus particles were seen in the cytoplasm of the macrophages. Multiplying virus particles in crystalline arrays arranged either in single or in multiple clusters were seen in the cytoplasm of macrophages, lymphocytes and light stained reticular epithelial cells.