Fatal ovine nephrosis caused by Anagallis arvensis L.

Cases of acute mortality in sheep, characterised by severe nephrosis and resultant uraemia, were investigated on two farms 150 km apart in the Winter Rainfall area of the Republic of South Africa. This condition was experimentally reproduced by dosing sheep with Anagallis arvensis L plants. The most consipicious lesion was a coagulative necrosis with intratubular haemorrhage in the renal cortex. The history, clinical signs and the pathology, and experimental reproduction of the disease are described.