Aleutian mink disease

A slowly progressive disease of certain mink (e.g. Aleutian mink which are mutants for a pale colored pelt) caused by persistent parvovirus infection and associated with polyclonal, virus specific hypergammaglobulinemia and immune complex-mediated lesions, especially arteritis and glomerulonephritis. It is manifested by emaciation, reproductive inefficiency and death from renal failure. The characteristic laboratory findings are hypergammaglobulinemia and a massive proliferation and infiltration of plasma cells into the swollen kidneys and into the spleen, liver, lymph nodes and bone marrow.