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JPC SYSTEMIC PATHOLOGY

CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM

March 2025

C-V05

 

Signalment (JPC #4048428): 2 year, 8 month, male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)

 

HISTORY: Presented with partial anorexia, decreased alertness, mild lameness of left forelimb, and focal, 2 cm diameter ulcer on the hard palate. Treatment initiated with daily flunixin. No significant improvement or deterioration. Found dead approximately 72 hours later. 

 

HISTOPATHOLOGIC DESCRIPTION: Liver: Affecting 60% of this section are multifocal to coalescing areas of hemorrhage, fibrin, and edema, primarily within the centribulobular regions. In these areas of hemorrhage, sinusoidal architecture is disrupted and hepatocytes are surrounded, separated, and individualized by the hemorrhage. Hepatocytes are frequently either: shrunken, with a hypereosinophilic cytoplasm and karyolysis (necrosis), or swollen with a vacuolated nucleus (degeneration). Admixed are variable numbers of heterophils, lymphocytes, and rare histiocytes. Multifocally, sinusoidal endothelial cells have enlarged nuclei (10-15 µm) that contain a single, basophilic, intranuclear 3-5 µm inclusion body surrounded by a clear halo and peripheralized chromatin.

 

Heart: Affecting 70% of the myocardium are multifocal to coalescing areas of hemorrhage, fibrin, and edema that surround, separate, and individualize cardiac myocytes. These myocytes occasionally demonstrate one of two changes: shrunken with hypereosinophilic sarcoplasm and a pyknotic nucleus (necrosis), or swollen, vacuolated sarcoplasm with a vesiculate nucleus (degeneration). Rarely in these areas of hemorrhage or immediately adjacent there are endothelial cells with enlarged nuclei (10-15 µm) that contain a single, basophilic, intranuclear 3-5 µm inclusion body that peripheralizes the chromatin. Occasionally inflammatory infiltrates composed of lymphocytes, histiocytes, and fewer plasma cells and heterophils, are present within areas of hemorrhage. 

 

MORPHOLOGIC DIAGNOSIS: 1. Liver: Hemorrhage, centrilobular, acute, multifocal to coalescing, severe, with hepatocellular necrosis and degeneration and basophilic intranuclear viral inclusions. 

 

2. Heart: Hemorrhage, acute, diffuse, severe, with multifocal cardiomyocyte degeneration and necrosis and rare endothelial basophilic intranuclear viral inclusions. 

 

ETIOLOGY: Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus-1

 

ETIOLOGIC DIAGNOSIS: Herpesviral hepatic and myocardial hemorrhage 

 

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

 

PATHOGENESIS:

 

TYPICAL CLINICAL FINDINGS:

 

TYPICAL GROSS FINDINGS:

 

TYPICAL LIGHT MICROSCOPIC FINDINGS:

 

ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSTIC TESTS:

 

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS:

 

COMPARATIVE PATHOLOGY:

Other Betaherpesviruses of veterinary importance:

 

REFERENCES:

  1. Barthold SW, Griffey SM, Percy DH. Pathology of Laboratory Rodents and Rabbits. 4th ed. Ames, IA: Wiley Blackwell; 2016: 15-17, 122, 219.
  2. Caswell JL, Williams KJ. Respiratory system. In: Maxie MG, ed. Jubb, Kennedy and Palmer’s Pathology of Domestic Animals. Vol 2. 6th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier; 2016: 537.
  3. Farina LL, Lankton JS. Chiroptera. In: Terio KA, McAloose D, St. Leger J, eds. Pathology of Wildlife and Zoo Animals. London, UK: Academic Press; 2018:618. 
  4. Landolfi JA, Terrell SP. Proboscidae. In: Terio KA, McAloose D, St. Leger J, eds. Pathology of Wildlife and Zoo Animals. San Diego, CA: Elsevier; 2018:419-423. 
  5. Lopez A, Martinson SA. Respiratory System, Thoracic Cavities, Mediastinum, and Pleurae. In: Zachary JF, ed. Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease. 7th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier; 2022:624.
  6. Lowenstine LJ, McManamon R, Terio KA. Apes. In: Terio KA, McAloose D, St. Leger J, eds. Pathology of Wildlife and Zoo Animals. London, UK: Academic Press; 2018:384-385. 
  7. Matz-Rensing K, Lowenstine LJ. New World and Old World Monkeys. In: Terio KA, McAloose D, St. Leger J, eds. Pathology of Wildlife and Zoo Animals. London, UK: Academic Press; 2018:350-351.
  8. Schlafer DH, Foster RA. Female genital system. In: Maxie MG, ed. Jubb, Kennedy and Palmer’s Pathology of Domestic Animals. Vol 3. 6th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier; 2016: 433.
  9. Stanton JB, Zachary JF. Mechanisms of Microbial Infections. In: Zachary JF, ed. Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease. 7th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier; 2022:256, 279. 
  10. Wachtman L, Mansfield K. Viral disease of non-human primates. In: Abee CR, Mansfield K, Tardif S., Morris T, eds. Nonhuman Primates in Biomedical Research: Diseases. Vol 2. 2nd ed. San Diego, CA: Elsevier, Inc.; 2012:8,19-20.


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