EXUDATIVE EPIDERMITIS - PATHOGENESIS AND PATHOLOGY

Twenty-six hysterectomy-derived, colostrum-deprived, 3-week-old pigs were inoculated subcutaneously with coccoid bacteria. Starting 48 hours after inoculation, 2 pigs were killed daily, cultured, and examined. The organism was most consistently reisolated from the conjunctival sac. The cutaneous lesion began with spongiosis in the upper part of the stratum spinosum followed by formation of vesicles and pustules or loss of the stratum corneum. Subsequently there was an accumulation on the skin of amorphous protcinaceous material, keratin, inflammatory cells, and coccoid bacteria over a parakeratotic layer. When the exudate and coccoid bacteria were abundant, the deeper layers of the epithelium were necrotic. Dilation of the ureters and renal pelves resulted from ureteral obstructions caused by severe edema, inflammatory cellular infiltrates, and hyperplasia and mucoid degeneration of the epithelium. © 1968, American College of Veterinary Pathologists. All rights reserved.