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Glucocorticoids are often illegally used in association with anabolic steroids as growth promoters in veal calves and beef production. An experimental administration of dexamethasone was carried out in veal calves in order to assess the role of low doses of exogenous glucocorticoids on induction of thymus atrophy and on the immune response. Three groups of five veal calves each were included in this study: group D was administered 0.4 mg/day of dexamethasone-21-phosphate per os for 25 days; group V was administered 2 mg of dexamethasone-21-isonicotinate i.m. at days 14 and 21, and group K served as control. At slaughter, the weight of the thymus was severely reduced in group D and in group V, compared with control animals. Lesions included severe lymphoid depletion and hyperplasia of adipose tissue. In situ evaluation of apoptosis in thymus, showed a reduction of the percentage of positive nuclear areas of animals belonging to group V in comparison with control animals. An overall decrease of lymphocyte proliferative response was detected after treatment with short acting dexamethasone, while antibody response was not affected by treatments.

Histopathology of male cattle previously found positive for béta-boldenone in urine in the Netherlands and in Italy was studied. The animals were derived from practice and several weeks had passed after the finding of béta-boldenone before the animals were examined. The animals consisted of 34 male veal calves and one finishing bull. In the prostate gland hypersecretion, cyst formation (45%) and hyperplasia of the urethral epithelium was observed, in the bulbo-urethral gland similar alterations were present. The testis showed reduced development and degeneration of the germinal epithelium (70%), leading to debris and syncytial cell formation in the lumina. Stromal proliferation was evident. In some animals the liver was sampled and showed periportal fibrosis, bile duct proliferation and sometimes necrosis. The bull also showed degeneration of the germinal epithelium of the testis and absence of sperm production, the prostate gland showed some secretion and had an atrophic appearance. It is concluded that béta-boldenone may lead to degeneration of the germinal epithelium of the testis and hypersecretion and cyst formation in the prostate and bulbo-urethral gland, which alterations may heal in time.

A detailed macroscopic and histological description is given of tuberculous-like lesions in mandibular lymph nodes obtained from wild boar (Sus scrofa) collected in Italy during the 1995/1996 hunting season, as well as a correlation with results obtained from a Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex target amplified test system. According to macroscopic appearance, lesions were largely represented by caseous-necrotic-calcified granulomata (n = 272/285; 95.4%), while histological investigations showed mainly necrotic-calcified (n = 82/218; 37.6%) and fibronecrotic-calcified (n = 81/218; 37.2%) lesions. When tested with a target rRNA amplification/hybridization technique to detect M. tuberculosis complex, 112 (43.6%) samples out of 275 tested gave positive results.