Experimentally-induced Cestrum laevigatum (Schlechtd.) poisoning in sheep

Dried, milled Cestrum laevigatum plant material was drenched to 6 ewes at doses ranging from 2,5 to 10 g/kg/day for 1 to 47 days. The most noticeable clinical signs were depression, anorexia and ruminal stasis. These signs were accompanied by clinical pathological changes indicative of liver involvement such as increases in the serum activities of aspartate transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase and gamma-glutamyltransferase. Hepatosis characterized by accentuated lobulation, and centrilobular to midzonal coagulative necrosis, haemorrhage and congestion occurred in 2 of the 3 ewes given high doses of plant material. Liver lesions in the other animals included disappearance of hepatocytes and collapse of the reticulin stroma in the centrilobular areas. Spongy changes in the cerebral white matter were evident in the ewes of the high-dose group. Ultrastructural changes in the liver comprised degeneration and necrosis of hepatocytes and occasionally endothelial cells, and disruption of sinusoidal walls.