A neurological disease with spongy degeneration in a newborn Japanese black calf

A Japanese Black calf, 3 day-old male, showed severe ataxia, lateral recumbency, and opisthotonos at the birth. Histopathological examinations revealed severe status spongiosis throughout the central nervous system. Numerous vacuoles within the neuropile varying in size and shape were observed in both formalin-fixed paraffin and cryostat sections. In the lesions, a limited number of spheroids and macrophages were observed within the myelin sheaths with very mild astrogliosis. These vacuoles were negative for both periodic acid Schiff and Sudan black stains. The clinical and histopathological features were almost in conformity with those of bovine maple syrup urine disease (MSUD). Although we could not confirm completely the etiology, congenital hereditary neurological diseases including MSUD are considerable as the possible disease entry in the present case.