Abstract
Two Japanese deer (Cervus nippon) kept at a zoological garden in Shizuoka Prefecture were af-fected with malignant catarrhal fever. They manifested depression, pyrexia, blindness and diarrhea. The gross lesions included ulcers in the palate and rumen, hyperemia in the abomasum and intestine, petechiae in the liver and kidney, and edema of the superficial lymph nodes. Microscopically, vasculitis with necrotic changes in the vascular wall or perivascular infiltration with large to small sized mononuclear cells was observed in the digestive tracts, lung, kidney, liver, brain and lymph nodes. Necrotic epithelial cells were infiltrated with mononuclear cells in the digestive tracts. Large to small sized mononuclear cells proliferated in the lymph nodes. The present malignant catarrhal fever may be the first outbreak in deer in Japan.
