[A rare case of Sarcocystis encephalitis in a sheep]

Microbiologic, serologic, and fecal investigations were carried out with a flock of sheep to explore the spontaneous setting in of a disease with nervous signs in a sheep. The animal was forced to be slaughtered, and portions of the viscera and the brain were studied histopathologically. The presence of toxoplasmosis was ruled out via investigations of blood sera taken from weaned lambs and from ewes that had miscarried in the same flock, employing the microprecipitation test in agar gel after Hubner and Uhliková. The microbiologic studies did not reveal any infection of contagious character, and routine parasitologic studies ruled out the presence of Coenurus cerebralis and of Oestrus ovis larvae. Studies of the brain of a sheep revealed the presence of sarcocysts in the hemispheres, with changes characteristic of nonsuppurative encephalitis.