Motor and somatosensory degenerative myelopathy responsive to pantothenic acid in piglets.

ABSTRACT: This report describes 2 events of degenerative myelopathy in 4- to 27-day-old piglets, with mortality rates reaching 40%. Sows were fed rations containing low levels of pantothenic acid. Piglets presented with severe depression, weakness, ataxia, and paresis, which were more pronounced in the pelvic limbs. No significant gross lesions were observed. Histologically, there were degeneration and necrosis of neurons in the spinal cord, primarily in the thoracic nucleus in the thoracic and lumbar segments, and motor neurons in nucleus IX of the ventral horn in the cervical and lumbar intumescence. Minimal-to-moderate axonal and myelin degeneration was observed in the dorsal funiculus of the spinal cord and in the dorsal and ventral nerve roots. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated depletion of ace

SUBMITTER: Lorenzett MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9827486 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature