Pathology in Practice

摘要

During 3 consecutive breeding seasons, a number of lambs had died shof tly after birth in a flock of Sarda sheep in Sardinia. Affected lambs had hairless areas of skin on the limbs and pinnae; the hooves were absent in 1 lamb. The flock included approximately 300 ewes and 4 rams, and records indicated that 10 lambs were affected with this congenital skin disorder within the preceding year. Flock feeding relied on the exploitation of natural pastures; the diet was supplemented with concentrate and hayduring the milking period. The owner reported that no new introduction of sheep had occurred before the onset of the first clinical case. A dead female lamb was transported to the diagnostic laboratories of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna for postmortem examination and subsequent histologic and immunohistochemical (IHC) investigations.