MacKay Evelyn E, Fratzke Alycia P, Gerhold Richard W, Porter Brian F, Washburn Kevin E
Departments of Large Animal Clinical Sciences (MacKay, Washburn) and Veterinary Pathobiology (Fratzke, Porter), College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (Gerhold).
J Vet Diagn Invest. 2020 May;32(3):486-489. doi: 10.1177/1040638720915530. Epub 2020 Apr 3.
A 2-y-old Brahman bull was presented with progressive hindlimb ataxia and paraparesis that led to recumbency. Postmortem examination revealed scattered pinpoint, red-brown foci within the brainstem and gray matter of the spinal cord, and a larger lesion within the spinal cord at the level of T13. Histology of the section of T13 contained cross-sections of nematodes consistent with . Evidence of inflammation was present in other affected areas of the spinal cord and brain. DNA extraction and nested PCR were performed, which demonstrated 98% identity and 100% coverage to both and . Our case highlights the utility of DNA sequencing in parasite identification.