ABSTRACT
The pathological findings are described in three cases of infectious canine hepatitis in free-ranging red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in England. The foxes died after short periods of clinical illness. Mild jaundice and hepatic congestion were evident grossly. On histopathological examination, intranuclear inclusion bodies were visible in hepatocytes, in association with hepatocyte dissociation and necrosis, as well as in renal glomeruli, renal tubular epithelial cells and vascular endothelial cells. Canine adenovirus type 1 (CAV-1) was isolated from all three foxes. In a serological study, antibodies to CAV-1 were detected in tissue fluid extracts taken from 11 of 58 (19 per cent) frozen red fox carcases from England and Scotland.
Subject(s)
Adenoviruses, Canine/isolation & purification , Foxes/virology , Hepatitis, Infectious Canine/diagnosis , Adenoviruses, Canine/immunology , Animals , Antibodies, Viral/blood , Dogs , Fatal Outcome , Foxes/immunology , Hepatitis, Infectious Canine/pathology , Hepatocytes/pathology , Intranuclear Inclusion Bodies , Jaundice/etiology , Jaundice/veterinary , Kidney Cortex/pathology , United KingdomABSTRACT
Paraplegia affected 14 hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in a wildlife rescue hospital over a period of six months. Postmortem examination revealed demyelination in the brain and spinal cord and an inflammatory response in the meninges, choroid plexus and CNS. The peripheral nervous system was not affected. In the spleen, lungs and liver there was an accumulation of megakaryocytes and other evidence of extramedullary haemopoiesis, but there was no haematological evidence of anaemia. The pattern of disease incidence and the nature of the changes in the CNS suggest they were of viral origin, but no causal agent was isolated and the possibility of a neurotoxin cause cannot be ruled out.
