Immune complex glomerulonephritis of suspected iatrogenic origin in five Japanese Black calves

BERNIER GOSSELIN, Véronique; KIM, Dae Y.; NAGY, Dusty W.; SHOEMAKE, Brian M.; SHAW, Daniel P.; ROYAL, Angela B.; EVANS, Tim J.; MIDDLETON, John R.

The jugular vein thrombosis in Case 2 was quite extensive and unexpected. Decreased antithrombin activity was previously reported in two cases with glomerulonephritis [10] . Antithrombin activity was not measured in the current case series, but proteinuria leading to antithrombin loss could have played a role in the apparent hypercoagulability of Case 2. Additionally, inflammation and disseminated activation of coagulation in multifocal vasculitis can cause a hypercoagulable state. Subsequent disseminated intravascular coagulation may have been the culprit behind Case 1's thrombocytopenia and evidence of petechial and mucosal hemorrhage. Among previous reports of glomerulonephritis, M. mycoides subsp. mycoides was associated with pulmonary vasculitis [7] , but neither lesions of multifocal fibrinoid vasculitis nor clinical complications of thrombosis were described [2, 3, 8, 12, 14, 15] . The unique finding of multifocal fibrinoid vasculitis in 3 out of 4 calves reported here may be explained by the suspected pathogenesis in these cases that resulted in different kinetics of immune complex formation and deposition in tissues.