Escoliose cervical adquirida causada pela deficiência de cobre em caprinos

• Autor(a) principal: Alves, Diego Nathan de Fontes
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFPB
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/123456789/15400
• topic: Deficiência mineral; Doenças de caprinos; Sistema nervoso; Ruminantes; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::MEDICINA VETERINARIA

Copper deficiency (Cu) is one of the most important mineral deficiencies in Brazil. Low values of this mineral have been found in forages and livers of ruminants from all regions, resulting in varied clinical manifestations of deficiency, such as the nervous system changes caused by hypomyelinogenesis or demyelination known as enzootic ataxia of sheep and goats. Significant macroscopic changes in the nervous system are not seen, but histologically, axonal vacuolization is observed. The problem worsens in herds, owing to the lack of information on the part of the producers regarding the nutritional requirements of Cu for the animals. The development of Cu deficiency depends both on its concentration in the diet and on the concentrations of the antagonists that interfere with the uptake and use of Cu for the metabolic processes. This paper reports an outbreak of acquired enzootic cervical scoliosis caused by Cu deficiency. The study was carried out in a herd of crossbred goats in Alagoa Grande city, Paraíba, northeastern Brazil. Necropsies of five goats were collected from all organs, in addition to the central nervous system, which were fixed in 10% formaldehyde, routinely processed and stained by Hematoxylin-Eosin. In addition, samples from the spinal cord were also stained by Luxol Fast Blue, for assessment of myelination. Liver samples from the five necropsied goats, as well as the sera from three diseased goats' mothers, were analyzed by means of atomic absorption spectrometry to characterize the Cu, Fe, Mo and Zn contents. The determination of these same minerals was also performed by analysis of 10 samples of the plants where the herd grazed, in addition to 10 soil samples from the grazing site. The clinical signs presented by all goats were progressive and included ataxia that progressed to difficulty in getting up, cervical scoliosis, long periods in decubitus, head tremors, permanent decubitus, spastic paralysis and death. A goat treated with injectable solution of Cu at the beginning of the disease presented complete recovery; in another goat treated after one month of evolution there was regression of the ataxia, but the scoliosis remained unchanged. Histologically, demyelination of the white matter was observed. Cu levels were low in both pasture and liver. We conclude that cervical scoliosis observed in young goats is caused by marked Cu deficiency.