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A Novel Nonsuppurative Meningoencephalitis in Young Greyhounds in Ireland

Departments of Veterinary Pathology (JJC), Small Animal Clinical Studies (CTM), and Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology (GM), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Conway Institute of Molecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland(JJC, GM); Institut of Animal Neurology, BSE Reference Centre, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland (RF, MV); Institut of Veterinary Pathology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland (FE); Department of Agriculture & Food, Central Research Laboratory, Abbotstown, Castleknock, Dublin (MM, PR); and Regional Laboratory, Kilkenny, Ireland (DT)

Fourteen 4- to 18-month-old vaccinated Greyhounds (10 males, 4 females) from three kennels in southern Ireland presented over a 2-year period with acute or insidious onset neurological signs. Head tilting, ataxia, recumbency, circling, and blindness were commonly observed, and animals were dull, dehydrated, and had lost weight. Hematologic and biochemical parameters reflected dehydration but were otherwise unremarkable. Microscopic examination revealed severe diffuse and focal gliosis and gemistocytosis accompanied by mononuclear cell perivascular cuffing in caudate nucleus and cortical gray matter of the cerebrum and in the periventricular gray matter of the anterior brainstem. Milder lesions were noted in the caudal brainstem, cranial spinal cord, and in the molecular layer of the cerebellum. This was accompanied by a lymphocyte and plasma cell infiltration of the cerebral and cerebellar meninges. Demyelination, neuropil necrosis, neuronophagia, and vasculitis were not observed. No inclusion bodies, fungi, or protozoal cysts were seen. Additional serologic and molecular pathology tests also failed to determine a cause, suggesting that these cases may represent a previously undiagnosed condition in the dog.

Key words: Dogs; Greyhound; Ireland; neuropathology; nonsuppurative meningoencephalitis; polioencephalitis.

Request reprints from Dr. J. J. Callanan, Department of Veterinary Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland. E-mail: Sean.callanan{at}ucd.ie.

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