Occurrence of nervous-tissue tumors in cattle, horses, cats and dogs

From 11 North American veterinary university hospitals and clinics, 248 animals were a confirmed diagnosis of nervous-tissue tumor were identified; 7 tumors were found in cattle, 28 in horses, 14 in cats, 199 in dogs, and none in other species. Tumors were divided for analysis into three categories-glial, meningeal, and peripheral nerve. In cattle and horses, all tumors involved peripheral nerves, the risk of which, in horses, reached a plateau at 4-6 years of age and remained constant thereafter. In cats, the tumors were equally distributed among the three tumor categories whereas, in dogs, twice as many glial tumors as meningeal and peripheral nerve tumors were found. The risk for glial tumors in dogs reached a peak at 10-14 years of age, for meningeal at 7-9 years, and for peripheral nerve at 2-3 and 7-9 years. Three canine breeds-English bulldog, boxer, and Boston terrier-had an excessive rish of glial tumors. Except for an excess of skin tumors in dogs with peripheral nerve tumors, there was no unusual occurrence with second primary neoplasms for any species. There was no detectable predisposition by sex for any of the categories of nervous-tissue tumors among any of the four species. The role of genetic abnormalities associated with nervous-tissue tumors and other etiologic factors (e.g., chronic hypoxia) may be clarified by further studies involving canine breeds of "bulldog" ancestry.