Necrotizing meningoencephalitis of Maltese dog

The Necrotizing Meningoencephalitis (NME) is an encephalopathy caused by an inflammatory dysfunction with necrotic characterization. The aim of this report is to describe the anatomopathological features of the NME in a Maltese dog. The disease has a unique necrotic pattern and is closely related to Pug Dog Encephalitis (PDE) because of their similarity as well as to Necrotizing Leukoencephalitis (NLE). Although the first PDE report has more than 15 years and the first Maltese NME report has 11 years there is a lot to be unveiled about the etiologic and the immunopathologic mechanisms of the disease. Here we report one case of a Maltese dog with signs that were compatible with NME. The gross morphology pictures with the cerebral cavitation and the histological loss of parenchymal cells in some regions of the cerebral cortex were detected. Based on these findings, we describe the first case of NME in Maltese dog in Brazil.

necrotizing meningoencephalitis; maltese dog; central nervous system