Amprolium poisoning of preruminant lambs: an investigation of the encephalopathy and the haemorrhagic and diarrhoeic syndromes.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the brain lesions, diarrhoea and haemorrhages produced by amprolium poisoning of preruminant lambs. The encephalopathy was preceded by a reduction of cerebrocortical transketolase activity. Diarrhoea was not associated with histological evidence of pathological change in the small intestine, and in lambs with severe diarrhoea the small intestinal levels of alkaline phosphatase and lactase were unaffected. Haemorrhages were associated with a thrombocytopenia which was attributed to degeneration of bone marrow megakaryocytes. The bone marrow of the majority of the lambs which had received amprolium for 3 wk or more was severely depopulated, erythrocyte precursors being the most severely affected. The marrow depopulation was atrributed to decreased cell production, as the majority of the remaining cells showed little evidence of degeneration and the number of mitotic figures in the marrow of amprolium-treated lambs was considerably reduced as compared with the controls.