Malignant catarrhal fever in a bovine in the State of Rio de Janeiro - A case report

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Galvão A., Galvão C.F., Caldas S.A., dos Santos A.M., d’Avila M.S., Cid G. de C., Nogueira V.A. & Peixoto T.C. [Malignant catarrhal fever in a bovine in the State of Rio de Janeiro - A case report.] Febre catarral maligna em bovino no estado do Rio de Janeiro - Relato de caso. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinária, 38(Supl.1):108-114, 2016. Departamento de Anatomia, Patologia e Clínicas Veterinárias, Escola de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Av. Adhemar de Barros, 500, Ondina, Salvador, BA 40170-110, Brasil. E-mail: tcpeixoto@ufba.br The present work described a case of malignant catarrhal fever affecting a 6 year-old Holstein cattle from a farm situated in Amparo, RJ, which herd had close contact with sheep on the same farm. Clinical signs observed were consisted of depression, hyperthermia (42º C), anorexy, labourious breathing, excess of salivation, corneal opacity, profuse mucopurulent nasal discharge, apathy, erosions and ulcers in oral and nasal mucosa, detachment of tongue and hard palate epithelium, putrid halitosis, blindness, incoordination and recumbence followed by death. Evolution of disease was of 83 hours. Necropsy findings includes moderate increase of superficial lymph nodes, marked pulmonary edema, moderate catarrhal content in the bronchi, necrosis of tips of the buccal papillae, hyperemia and large areas of multifocal to coalescing ulceration in the hard palate and tongue. In the nasal cavity, there was moderate hyperemia, multiple erosions and ulcers, nasal turbinates covered by catarrhal to mucopurulent exudate and marked crusted dermatitis of muzzle. Kidneys had a natural surface with multiple millimetric whitish points. Additionally there was moderate hyperemia of the urinary bladder mucosa and congestion of meninges. Microscopic evaluation revealed in central nervous system a moderate infiltration of mononuclear cells in the adventitia and perivascular spaces associated with focal gliosis. In carotid rete there was a marked mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate in the media and adventitia tunic of the arteries. At the liver it was observed congestion and moderate mononuclear vasculitis and moderate periportal mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate. Lungs had moderate edema and mild mononuclear vasculitis and kidneys had congestion, mononuclear vasculitis and interstitial nephritis composed predominantly by macrophages and lymphocytes.