Pathology of spontaneous brain lesions in young bovine calves

Abstract

Twenty four brains of calves up to one year age of both sexes and different breeds were collected from the postmortem facility of the Institute and examined from 12 designated sites at 67 neuroanatomical locations. Grossly, no specific lesions were observed on superior or inferior aspects or cut surfaces of the brains. The microscopic lesions demonstrated in 9/15 brains of cattle calves and 6/9 brains of buffalo calves, showed spontaneous pathological lesions in different neuroanatomical sites. The lesions occurred mostly in combination, maximum number in rostral colliculi followed by cerebrum and the caudate nucleus. The microscopic lesions were identified as ischemic neurons in 2 calves, engorgement of vasculature in 14 calves; haemorrhages in brain substance in 7 calves, vascular mineralization in 1 calf, vasogenic edema of axonic tracts in 1 calf, edema around blood vessels in 3 calves, perivascular cuffing in 7 calves, vasculitis in 2 calves, microgliosis in 12 calves, leptomeningitis in 4 calves neuronophagic nodule in 1 calf, satellitosis in 1 calf, oligodendrogliosis in 1 calf, subependymal gliosis in 4 calves and parasitic infestation in 1 calf. The frequency occurrence of engorgement, haemorrhages, meningitis, perivascular cuffing and microglial lesions was found high in buffalo calves as compared to cattle calves. All the 24 brain samples got tested negative for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) by Real Time PCR.