A suspected lipofuscin storage disease of sheep associated with ingestion of the plant, Trachyandra divaricata (Jacq.) Kunth

Abstract

Paresis afflicted 85 out of a flock of 770 young Merino ewes kept on old wheat lands in the western Cape during a period of drought. Many of the paretic ewes died. The vegetation was sparse and was dominated by Trachyandra divaricata. At necropsy, yellowish-brown discoloration of the grey matter throughout the brain and spinal cord and mild brown discoloration of the liver, renal cortex and lymph nodes were consistently seen. Light microscopical examination revealed abundant, yellowish-brown pigment granules in the cytoplasm of most of the larger neurons. Similar pigment also occurred in some non-nervous tissues. Shrinkage and loss of a few randomly scattered axons were observed in the white matter of the spinal cord in 2 sheep. Histochemical and ultrastructural features of the pigment were consistent with those of lipofuscin. T. divaricata failed to reproduce the condition when dosed to a sheep, but the paresis and pigmentation shown to be caused by the closely related plant, T. laxa, are strikingly similar. Trachyandra poisoning appears to be the first documented example in farm animals of an acquired lipofuscin storage disease involving nervous and non-nervous tissues for which a specific plant has been causally implicated.