PARALYSIS IN HEDGEHOGS (ERINACEUS-EUROPAEUS) ASSOCIATED WITH DEMYELINATION

Paraplegia affected 14 hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in a wildlife r escue hospital over a period of six months. Postmortem examination rev ealed demyelination in the brain and spinal cord and an inflammatory r esponse in the meninges, choroid plexus and CNS, The peripheral nervou s system was not affected. In the spleen, lungs and liver there was an accumulation of megakaryocytes and other evidence of extramedullary h aemopoiesis, but there was no haematological evidence of anaemia. The pattern of disease incidence and the nature of the changes in the CNS suggest they were of viral origin, but no causal agent was isolated an d the possibility of a neurotoxin cause cannot be ruled out.