Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology
-
The aim of this study was to determine the cause of sudden deaths in sheep in the Anari Valley of the state of Rondônia, in northern Brazil. In one outbreak, sheep were placed in an area where the owner had cut Amorimia (Mascagnia) sepium and let it dry for two days. Fourteen out of 35 sheep died with few outward clinical signs observed over a period of about 10 h after the ingestion of the dry plant. ⋯ Fibrosis, neovascularization and infiltration by mononuclear inflammatory cells were observed in the sheep that ingested the plant for 33 days. Vacuolar-hydropic degeneration was observed in the epithelial cells of renal tubules of four sheep. It is concluded that A. sepium is responsible for sudden deaths in sheep.