[Pathologic features of a case of systemic brucellosis due to Brucella melitensis biovar 3 in a chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra)].

A case of systemic brucellosis caused by Brucella melitensis biovar 3 was identified in a chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) in the southern French Alps. Clinical signs included bilateral orchiepididymitis and keratoconjunctivitis, polyarthritis, and neurological signs; pathological findings confirmed an ulcerative keratitis, orchiepididymitis with calcified or necrotic foci and serofibrinous and hemorrhagic polyarthritis. The kidney cortex showed calcified nodules and infarctions. A small focus of chronic pleuritis was also observed. Brain and pia mater showed degeneration, necrosis and calcification with perivascular lymphoplasmacytic and granulomatous inflammation. B. melitensis was evidenced in all these organs. This systemic brucellosis is unusual in our developed countries, in human an early medical action restricts the illness to localised lesions; domestic ruminants are slaughtered at the first clinical suspicion like abortion and/or after seroconversion.