THROMBOTIC MENINGOENCEPHALITIS ASSOCIATED WITH HISTOPHILUS-OVIS INFECTION IN LAMBS IN EUROPE

Thrombotic meningoencephalitis is an acute, usually fatal disease of c attle caused by Haemophilus somnus, Although it has been widely recogn ised in cattle there have been only two previous reports of the condit ion in sheep, in Australia and Canada, where the causal organisms were identified as Histophilus ovis and an H somnus-like organism, respect ively, This paper describes the clinical, pathological and microbiolog ical features of the disease in two lambs from a flock in Northern Ire land, In both lambs the clinical signs and histological lesions were s imilar to those previously described in sheep and cattle, and H ovis w as isolated from the brain tissue of both of them, The authors believe this to be the first report of thrombotic meningoencephalitis in shee p in Europe.