Muscle degeneration and yellow fat disease in foals

Abstract

Extract

At least three types of natural disease characterized by muscle degeneration have been recorded in the horse. These are the well-known paralytic myoglobinuria, polymyositis, and a myositis of the lingual and maxillary muscles. The first is apparently world-wide, whereas the others have been recorded in few countries. Polymyositis (a term used in Scandinavian countries) and its relationship to a muscle degeneration in foals in New Zealand has been referred to by Hartley and Dodd (1957). Both conditions occur in suckling foals and are similar, if not identical, to one another and to white muscle disease in calves and lambs. Foals, however, show in addition to muscle degeneration a typical yellow fat disease as it occurs in vitamin E deficient rats and in mink as a natural disease.