ABSTRACT
Water intoxication is a common disorder in calves and is usually characterized by transient hemoglobinuria. In contrast, the condition is very rare in adult cattle, with few reports on naturally occurring cases. In the present report, four female Japanese Black cattle, aged 16-25 months, showed neurological signs when they drank water following a water outage. Hemoglobinuria was not grossly observed, while severe hyponatremia was revealed by laboratory tests. Autopsy indicated cerebral edema with accumulation of serous fluid in expanded Virchow-Robin spaces. These results indicate the possibility of water intoxication associated with cerebral edema due to severe dilutional hyponatremia in adult cattle.
Subject(s)
Cattle Diseases/etiology , Hyponatremia/veterinary , Water Intoxication/veterinary , Animals , Brain Edema/etiology , Brain Edema/veterinary , Cattle , Cattle Diseases/pathology , Fatal Outcome , Female , Hyponatremia/etiology , Water Intoxication/complicationsABSTRACT
Older cows show a high incidence of infectious diseases during the periparturient period. The periparturient infectious diseases are closely associated with the immune function of dairy cows during the pre-calving period. In order to evaluate the relationship between the immune cell population and age in the cows during the pre-calving period, we obtained blood samples from 170 dairy cows during the pre-calving period. We chose only healthy cows, which did not develop clinical diseases within 2 weeks after the calving in this study. The animals were divided into 4 groups based on their parity: in their 1st pregnancy (Group 1), in their 2nd pregnancy (Group 2), in their 3rd calving (Group 3) and in more than 3rd pregnancy (Group 4). The numbers of the peripheral blood CD3(+)TcR1-N12(+) and MHC class-II(+)CD14(-) lymphocytes were significantly higher in Group 1 compared to Group 4. This result indicated that the lower gammadeltaT cells and B cells in older cows compared with heifer during pre-calving period.
