Cathy Harvey
Clinical history
A dairy farm with 350 Friesian-Jersey cross cows had eight cows abort seven weeks early. The animals were being fed mouldy silage. Multiple fixed tissues were submitted along with fetal stomach contents for histopathology testing.
Laboratory testing
On histopathology of the placenta there were multifocal large areas of necrosis and haemorrhage, and numerous infiltrates of degenerate neutrophils admixed with numerous fungal hyphae (branching septate even walled). Many vessels contained degenerate neutrophils in the wall, and fibrin the lumen (vasculitis).
There were no significant findings on histopathology of the spleen, lung, skeletal muscle, heart, kidney, liver, and brain.
Aspergillus fumigatus was detected on PCR of the fetal stomach contents. Mortierella wolfii and Ureaplasma diversum were not detected.
Diagnosis
The fungal placentitis is the likely the cause of abortion – from the mouldy silage.
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