Congenital Deformities in the Sudan 4. Wry Face in a Cross-Bred Bovine Calf

Congenital Deformities in the Sudan

4. Wry Face in a Cross-Bred Bovine Calf

HindOsman E.

SudanUniversity for Science and Technology, College of Veterinary Medicine Department of Pathology

Key words: wry face, congenital deformities, bovine

Abstract

A description is given to a cross-bred female calf with congenital deformities in the head region. The animal had wry face, microphthalmia, dermoid cysts in both eyes and a characteristic circling movement. A mass of tissue was almost occluding the left nostril.

The post-mortem examination of the trunk that was performed immediately after severing revealed petechial haemorrhages in lungs, hypertrophied yellowish liver and greenish yellow discoloration of the body fluids. No apparent internal anatomical deviations were observed.

The histopathological examinations revealed multi-focal haemorrhages in the lungs and hyperplastic connective tissues, bile ducts proliferation and slight inflammatory cells infiltration in the liver. The nasal tissue mass was found to be a mass of hyperplastic muscle and connective tissue fibres.

Introduction

Many types of congenital craniofacial deformities in domestic animals had been described in the literature. aprosopia (Dennis and Leipold, 1972), diprosopia (Camon, et al. 1995; Kim, et al.  2000; Bahr et al.  2004; Osman Hind et al. 2004; Osman Hind and Khaleel, 2004; Osman Hind, 2010) dicephalus (Gruys, 1973; Gawlikowski and Misinakewics, 1979;  Mcgirr et al.1987) Cyclopia (Gawlikowski, 1993;Hirooka and Hamana, 1999;Schulze and Distl, 2006).) agnathia (Dennis and Leipold, 1972) and wry face (LaRue, 1997) which is the least to be reported. In the Sudan there is no satisfactory recording of these deformities and wry face has not been reported before.

This report describes and illustrates craniofacial deformities in a cross-bred, full-termed new borne female calf.

Methods

A. Clinical examination

A thorough examination was done for all organs and for the general behaviour of the deformed calf to investigate any congenital and clinical disturbances.

1. Post-mortem examination

The animal was severed forty eight hours after birth and subjected immediately to post-mortem examination. The body organs were examined for internal congenital deformities and / or pathological changes. Three cross sections at the nasal area were made to investigate the abnormalities of the bones and cavities in that area

C. Histopathology

Tissue sections of about one cubic centimetre was taken from the lung liver and the nasal mass of tissue and preserved in 10% formal saline for forty eight hours. The methods adopted for tissue processing, staining and mounting were that described by Drury and Walungtone (1980). The tissue sections were examined by light microscope.

Results

Case history

A full-termed congenitally deformed cross-bred female calf of a Sudanese Butana cow and a Friesian bull was borne alive in a farm in Khartoum North, Khartoum state, Sudan. The mother did not receive any assistance during parturition and there was no evidence of dystocia or post-parturition disturbances.

The whole body of the deformed calf was well proportioned but there was a slight enlargement in the body size. Clinical examinations of the calf revealed difficulty in breathing and circling movement. He did not suckle although the mouth could be opened.

The calf had many congenital deformities but the most prominent was a wry face; the nasal bone and the upper jaw were crooked and deformed (Fig. 1). The lower jaw was normal with normal dentition. There were microphthalmia and large dermoid cyst in both eyes. In one eye the dermoid cyst extended from the inner canthus and exceeding the middle of the lens which was smaller in size than normal. In the other eye it was covering almost the whole cornea. In the left nostril there was a mass of tissue that almost occluding the nasal cavity.

Post-mortem examination of the trunk was performed immediately after severing. The joints revealed no apparent congenital deformity. The liver was yellowish and hypertrophied. There were foci of petechial haemorrhages in the lungs. Obvious greenish yellow discoloration of the pericardial, abdominal and sinovial fluids was observed.

The cross sections of the nasal area revealed deviation of the nasal septum forming a crooked narrow left nasal passage. That narrowing was increasing caudally. Remnant left malformed turbinate bones and normal right ones were detected (Fig. 2).

Examination of the brain revealed flat lobulation. Distinct cord like lobulation and cavitation with the meningies forming stretched membrane over them were also seen in the lateral aspect of the anterior part of the right hemisphere. Asymmetry of the cervical vertebrae was detected.

Histopathological examination of the nasal mass of tissue, lung and liver samples revealed hyperplastic muscle fibers and slight infiltration of inflammatory cells in the nasal mass of tissue (Fig. 3); alveolar emphysema, focal atelactasis and multi-focal haemorrhages in the lungs; and proliferation of connective tissue and epithelial hyperplasia of the bile ducts in the liver (Fig. 4).

Discussion

The facial structures are considered to be neural crest-derivatives. These derivatives of the neural crest are expected to be deformed when there is deformed neural crest. (Chlmers and Rocken,  1990; Carles et al. 1995)The cause of craniofacial malformations are very complicated (Feng and  Fang, 2007) but high percentage of craniofacial abnormalities is ascribed to abnormalities in the neural crest (Johnston and Bronsky ,1995; Tallquist and Soriano, 2003) and ganglionic placodes (Boshart et al. 2000).

Corneal dermoid has been reported in various animal species and in human. It is believed to be congenital although it is non hereditary
(Lee et al. 2005). No dermoid cyst was reported in the previous case of wry face in the lama calf (LaRue, 1997).In this case the dermoid impaired the normal vision but the circling movement is more probably due to the deformities of the brain.

The laboured breathing may be due to the crooked narrow left nasal cavity and the mass of tissue in the nostril since there is no evidence of defects in the trachea and the diaphragm.

In the Sudan craniofacial abnormalities in bovine calves were reported before.  The deformed nasal bones in this case was different from that of the previous three deformed calves in which there were duplication of the nasal bones (Osman Hind et al. 2004; Osman Hind and Khaleel, 2004; Osman Hind, 2010). In another case there was circling movement associated with congenital hydrocephalus and perforated skull (Osman Hind, unpublished work).

Congenital deformities have many etiological factors (Kim et al. 2000). The pathological changes in liver, lung and sinovial fluid in this deformed calf raise the probability of involvement of teratogenic agent. It is always difficult to get and trust complete and accurate case history of an animal from an illiterate owner. This makes it more difficult to suggest any causative or influencing factor for such congenital defects which were sporadic cases till now. Still the recording of the congenital deformities in ruminants should be continued, as it was observed by the author that they are increasing in number   in Khartoum state in this decade.

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Figure. 1. Wry face in a female cross-bred bovine calf

Figure. 2. Crooked narrow left nasal cavity and deformed turbinate bones in a female cross-bred bovine calf

Figure. 3. Hyperplasia of muscle fibres in a nasal mass of tissue in a female cross-bred bovine calf (H&E, x 100)

Figure. 4. Proliferation of connective tissue in the liver of a female cross-bred bovine calf (H&E, x 20)