Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma as an animal model for human lung cancer, because OPA is histologically similar to human adenocarcinoma in situ of the lung. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell, was euthanized after it was confirmed that she had OPA. Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA), also known as ovine pulmonary adenomatosis, or jaagsiekte, is a chronic and contagious disease of the lungs of sheep and goats. OPA is caused by a retrovirus called jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV). The disease has a long incubation period, and therefore signs usually occur in adult animals (over 2
Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma of lung fluid produced by the affected lung tissue; lifting the hind legs of the animal above the level of its head will cause large volumes of this fluid to flow from the nostrils. There are no reliable tests for the diagnosis of OPA in live animals which are suitable for use on farms, so diagnosis can only be confirmed at necropsy (post-mortem examination). On necropsy, lungs are interspersed with multifocal tumors. Some of these are small discrete nodules and others will involve the entire half of a lung lobule. JSRV acutely transforms the lung epithelia into cancerous cells, with