Fifteen mature crossbred sheep were fed different daily amounts (2.5-35g kg-1 bw) of the fresh green leaves of Ateleia glazioviana for different periods of time (1-24 days). One sheep was not fed the plant and served as a control. All 16 sheep were euthanatized at different stages of the experiment, necropsied, and several organs, including heart and brain were evaluated histologically. Samples of five brain regions from three affected sheep were evaluated by electron microscopy. Clinical signs observed in three sheep included depression, anorexia, general weakness, staggering gait and prolonged recumbency. One sheep had signs of congestive heart failure. Necropsy findings included subcutaneous dependent edema and edema of the body cavities in two sheep and nutmeg liver in one. Histopathological findings included degeneration, necrosis and interstitial fibrosis in the myocardium of four sheep and vacuolation of cerebral white matter (spongy degeneration, status spongiosus) in 10 sheep, although this latter change were marked only in two of those 10. The ultrastructure of the brain lesion was morphologically consistent with that found in diseases grouped as spongiform myelinopathies in which vacuolation of the myelin occurs in the absence of significant myelin breakdown or phagocytosis. The morphology and pathogenesis of the chronic cardiomyopathy and of the cerebral spongy degeneration in affected sheep in this experiment are discussed and compared with other similar conditions in domestic ruminants.
poisonous plants; Ateleia glazioviana; cardiomyopathy; cerebral spongy degeneration; pathology; sheep diseases
