Two cases of cerebellar hypoplasia in Charolais calves from a herd of a farm located in the municipality of Capão do Leão, Southern Brazil are described. One calf with cerebellar clinical signs at birth, showed incoordination, hypermetria and intention tremors, mainly in the neck and head. The other calf was recumbent with opisthotonos. The gross lesions were characterized by cerebellar hypoplasia, with only remnants of cerebellar floculus and parafloculus and an expanded fluid-filled space covered by leptomeninges. Mild hydrocephalus and porencephaly were observed in the cerebrum. It was discussed the possible etiologies and suggested the possibility of the disease has been caused by bovine viral diarrhea-mucosal disease (BVD-MD) virus despite of negative results of imuno-histochemical technique for detection of this virus in cerebellar fragments of the affected calves.
cerebellar hypoplasia; cerebellum; cattle; malformation
