Abstract One stillborn lamb with congenital deformities was submitted to the Animal and Plant Health Agency, Carmarthen Veterinary Investigation Centre, to investigate the cause of its malformation. Congenital articular rigidity involving multiple joints and scoliosis was detected by postmortem examination. Histologically, there was a severe protozoal panmyelitis and encephalitis with intralesional protozoa. Multifocal non‐suppurative myositis with occasional associated protozoal forms was also observed. Intralesional tachyzoites and tissue cysts in the brain, spinal cord and skeletal muscles reacted with Neospora caninum antibodies. N. caninum DNA was also detected in brain tissue by real‐time PCR using primers designed to amplify an 86‐base pair region of the Nc5 gene, specific to N. caninum . No Toxoplasma gondii involvement was identified. The findings of this study demonstrate that N. caninum can cause arthrogryposis in lambs and, consequently, should be included as a differential diagnosis in cases of congenital neurological disease or malformations in lambs.
Macrelli et al. (Fri,) studied this question.