Experimental louping-ill in sheep and lambs. II. Neuropathology

Abstract

Sheep and lambs were inoculated intracerebrally or subcutaneously with louping-ill virus. In general the severity of symptoms was directly related to the extent of damage to nerve cells. Neuropathological changes in moribund animals were most marked in the Purkinje layer of the cerebellum, the motor nuclei, the vestibular nuclei and the ventral horns of the spinal cord. There was no difference between sheep and lambs in the overall severity of lesions. Purkinje cell loss was most apparent in the ventral parts of the cerebellum of those that were inoculated intracerebrally. The most widely disseminated inflammatory changes were seen in the 2 that succumbed to subcutaneous inoculation. Though ..