[Electron microscopic studies in enzootic muscular dystrophy in cattle]

Electron microscopy was used to examine the sekeletal muscles of young cattle, aged between 13 and 24 months, with spontaneous enzootic myodystrophy (nutritional myodegeneration due to selenium deficiency, white muscle disease). The animals had been received from Sumava District, Southern Bohemia, an area known for shortage of selenium. Outbreaks of clinical illness were recorded from them between four and 18 days from the beginning of grazing. Most of the ultrastructural changes included decomposition of myofibrils and hyalinisation of fibres as well as defective fibril synthesis (Z-striation abnormality), some of the latter phenomena recordable even from regenerating fibre. However, minor disorders only were established from the mitochondria, sarcoplasmic reticulum, components of sarcoplasm, and vessels. There were far-reaching ultrastructural similarities to nutritional myodegeneration of sheep. The changes recorded are likely to suggest a specific role played by selenium in the formation and preservation of myofibril proteins.