Senecio spp. poisoning is an important cause of illness and death of cattle in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and is often manifested by neurologic clinical signs and histological brain changes. Histological evaluation was performed on liver and brain samples of ten cattle naturally poisoned by Senecio sp. Samples of cerebrum, brainstem and cerebellum were stained with periodic acid-Schiff (PAS), and immunohistochemistry was carried out, employing anti-fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), anti-S100 protein and anti-vimentin antibodies. The histological finding in the brain included mild to severe vacuolation in the white matter and the junction of gray and white matter, characterized as spongy degeneration. Histochemical and immunohistochemical staining revealed no significant findings compared with the brains of eleven adult cattle without liver and/or brain changes used as controls.
Poisonous plants; Senecio spp.; hepatic encephalopathy; status spongiosus; GFAP; S100; vimentin; plant poisoning; cattle
