Based on the history and clinical and pathological data, as well as on inspection of the pastures, a mortality of buffaloes in the county of Itaguaí/RJ, Brazil, was diagnosed as poisoning by Cestrum laevigatum Schlecht., a plant of the Solanaceae family. The poisoning was reproduced in two buffaloes. Dried leaves of the shrub were administered by hand, in single doses corresponding to 20g/kg and 40g/kg of the fresh leaves, to four buffaloes of the Murrah breed. The dose corresponding to 40g/kg of the fresh leaves caused signs of poisoning, as apathy, anorexia, absence of rumen movements, dysmetria, excitement and aggressiveness, followed by death of the two buffaloes within 65 hours after administration. From the two buffaloes that received the corresponding dose of 20g/kg of the fresh plant, one presented clinical signs characterized mainly by decrease of the rumen movements, but recovered 97h22min after the administration; the other buffalo did not show symptoms of poisoning. Laboratory analyses for biochemical evaluation accused hepatic alterations. In one buffalo that died, the main macroscopic finding was an orange liver with a clear nutmeg appearance; in the second buffalo, the orange liver had no nutmeg appearance. Other alterations found in these two buffaloes were slight edema of the gall bladder wall, a slightly reddish mucous membrane of the abomasum, extensive echymoses in the endocard of the left ventricle and few petechiae in the endocard of the right ventricle; the abomasum content was slightly dry, and the large intestine had little and slightly dry contents wrapped by mucus. Histopatological examination revealed severe coagulative necrosis of the liver parenchyma in the centrolobular and intermediate lobular areas, with a halo of vacuolated hepatocytes at the periphery of the necrotic areas.
Poisonous plants; hepatotoxic plants; Cestrum laevigatum; Solanaceae; plant poisoning; buffaloes
