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We report a case of chronic copper poisoning in a flock of 182 grazing dairy sheep in Thessaly, Central Greece. Five ewes were found dead during the course of a week. The diagnosis of copper poisoning was confirmed by necropsy examination, blood test results, and abnormally high copper levels in liver and kidney samples. A field investigation revealed the source of copper as a litter heap from a broiler farm to which the sheep had accidental access during their movement between the milking parlour and the grazing area. Access to the litter was subsequently blocked and all sheep were provided with 50 g of a salt/gypsum/sodium molybdate mixture (90.0: 9.8: 0.2, w/w) mixed in 500 g of concentrate feed daily, for a period of 5 weeks. Follow-up blood samples were taken 3 and 8 wk after the initial diagnosis. A reduction in aspartate aminotransferase activity indicated the source of copper had been eliminated and the subsequent treatment was successful.

The concentration of iron, zinc, and copper in serum, pancreas, liver, duodenum, kidneys, myocardium, brain, and hair was studied in dogs with experimentally induced exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency was performed surgically in eight healthy, 8-month-old, mongrel dogs (group I). An equal number of dogs, of the same breed and age, were used as controls (group II). One month postoperatively, the dogs in group I showed symptoms of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, confirmed by the serum Trypsin-like immunoreactivity test, and on autopsy, by histological examination of the pancreas. At the end of the experiment (20-week duration) the dogs in both groups were sacrificed. The values of serum iron, percentage transferrin saturation, and iron concentration in pancreas, duodenum, and kidneys in group I dogs were significantly higher than those in control animals. The concentrations of zinc in serum, pancreas, and myocardium and of copper in serum, pancreas, duodenum, myocardium, and hair in group I dogs were significant lower than those in control animals. Histological examination of various organs of group I dogs revealed severe atrophy and fibrosis of the pancreas, fatty infiltration of the liver, destruction and reduction in height of the villi of the duodenal epithelium, and diffuse infiltration of the duodenal lamina propria with lymphocytes and plasmocytes.