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A 12-year-old female sarus crane (Grus antigone) developed a recurrent proliferative lesion in the subcutaneous tissue of the tarsometatarsus, which failed to respond to medical and surgical therapy. The crane was killed and microscopic examination of the tissues taken at necropsy revealed a myxomatous, poorly-differentiated sarcoma with metastasis to the liver and kidney. Immunohistochemical staining for muscle actin, smooth muscle myosin and vimentin were positive, indicating that the primary and metastatic tumours were leiomyosarcomas. Location of the metastatic lesions in only the portal venous system of the liver and veins of the kidney indicated that the route of metastasis was the portal circulation via the ischiatic vein, caudal mesenteric vein and both the renal-portal shunt and hepatic portal vein. This is the first report of metastatic subcutaneous leiomyosarcoma in an avian species.

The salivary glands from three African hedgehogs contained multiple foci of cytomegalic cells, which occasionally had a mild to moderate infiltrate of lymphocytes at the periphery. The cytomegalic cells were 35 to 40 microns in diameter with abundant acidophilic granular to hyalin cytoplasm. The nuclei were enlarged with clumped marginalized chromatin and a large, (6 to 8 microns in diameter) central, brightly eosinophilic nucleolus that had the appearance of an inclusion body by light microscopy. Histochemically most of the cytomegalic cells contained cytoplasmic metachromatic granules with Feyrter's thionine inclusion stain. Scattered cells at the periphery of the cytomegalic foci contained periodic acid-Schiff-positive cytoplasmic granules. Ultrastructurally the cytomegalic cells contained numerous tightly-packed, often bizarre, enlarged mitochondria that completely filled the cytoplasm. The nucleus consisted of a dense central core of chromatin associated with the nucleolus and the remaining chromatin was clumped and marginalized. Nuclear and cytoplasmic virions consistent with cytomegalovirus were not present. Histochemical stains of the nucleus for heavy metals were negative. The ultrastructural and histochemical findings of the cytomegalic cells were consistent with oncocytes. Previous reports in the literature of similar cells in the salivary glands of insectivores appear to have been erroneously described as cytomegalovirus infections.