Experimental alkylmercurial poisoning in swine. Lesions in the peripheral and central nervous systems

The effects of alkylmercurial poisoning were studied in 16 pigs poisoned with daily oral doses of a fungicide containing methylmercury 2, 3-dihydroxy propyl mercaptide and methylmercury acetate. Clinical signs included weakness, wobbling gait, blindness, recumbency and death. Microscopic studies of the peripheral nervous system revealed Wallerian degeneration in sensory fibers and neuronal degeneration in dorsal root ganglia. In the central nervous system, there were neuronal degeneration of ischemic type, glial degeneration, gliosis and necrosis of the media of meningeal arterioles. The last mentioned lesion was not extensive.The sequential development o lesions and the absence of segmental demyelination suggest that the primary lesion in the peripheral nervous system was neuronal-axonal degeneration rather than degeneration of the Schwann cell and myelin sheath.