Mycobacterium avium infection in a pygmy goat
Anderson, W.I.; King, J.M.
Veterinary Record 133(20): 502
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-4900 PMID: 8296435 Document Number: 413456
A 2-year-old pygmy goat had anorexia and chronic diarrhoea for a 6-week period with resultant cachexia. Tests indicated both anaemia and hypoproteinaemia. Repeated faecal cultures were negative for Salmonella sp and Campylobacter sp and and an agar gel immunodiffusion test was negative for gross Mycobacterium paratuberculosis infection. Principal gross PM findings were oedema of the ileum, colon and mesenteric lymph nodes. Culture of an ileocaecal lymph node resulted in isolation of M. avium complex serotype 8. Histologically, there was marked diffuse ileal, and colonic, submucosal oedema. Initial mineralization of submucosal and serosal arteries and arterioles was present in the ileum and colon. Mild to moderate multifocal fibrinoid necrosis of Peyer's patches, and severe multifocal to coalescing necrosis within mesenteric lymph nodes was present, Mycobacterium bacilli were present within necrotic lymphoid tissue. The source of the infection in the goat which had been reared alone is unknown. It is suggested that wild birds could be a potential source of infection.