Prevalance and pathology of brain disorders in cattle

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to assess the prevalence and pathology of various brain disorders in cattle. The data collected from the autopsy records maintained at the Centre of Excellence in Pathology, Mannuthy and fifty-two samples of brain obtained from both the slaughtered cattle and autopsy cases formed the basis of the, study. Gross lesions were not so evident except for the meningeal congestion, which accounted to 70 per cent of the cases. Congestion and haemorrhages were found consistently in the slaughtered cattle, which could be attributed to stunning effect. The other major lesions were well appreciated by detailed histopathological examination of ten different areas of the brain in each of the cases. These included vascular changes, neuronal degeneration, inflammatory changes, gliosis, pigmentation and neoplasia. Two cases revealed intra neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions of which one was due to rabies and the other was attributedto viral etiology. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy was not found to be present in any of the cases in the present study. Based on the observations made here, it was suggested that diagnosis of rabies by impression smear examination alone is not sufficient and needs examination by FAT or Immunoperoxidase techniques. The incidence of pathological disorders encountered was relatively high. Thus, the need and scope for investigation into the pathological disorders of bovine brain were highlighted.