Lamb Dysentery

(Enterotoxaemia with Blood)

• Clostridium perfringens causes very severe acute haemorrhagic enteritis.
  • Usually affects young farm animals
    • May also be seen in pets.
• Type B Clostridium perfringens infection of lambs leads to lamb dysentery.

Clinical

• Lamb dysentery is usually seen in lambs under 2 weeks of age.
  • Related to being kept in a cold, dirty environment, with build-up of infection during the lambing season.
• Lambs may produce bloodstained diarrhoea before death, but they often die before this effect is apparent.
• Diagnosed by culturing contents of gut.

Pathology

Gross

• The gut is blown and distended with foamy ,bloody contents.
• Sometimes ulceration with perforation and fibrinousperitonitis is seen.
• Focal or diffuse congestion and haemorrhages.

Histological

• Coagulative necrosis of villi.
• Oedema.
• Haemorrhage.
• Influx of inflammatory cells in the lamina propria and submucosa.

Similar Conditions

• Piglets show similar disease caused by Clostridium perfringens type C (and sometimes type B)
  • May look similar to a volvulus but with no twist present.
• In adult sheep Clostridium perfringens type B infection causes Struck.
  • Enterotoxigenic gastritis.
  • Acute sudden death with haemorrhagic enteritis
  • Haemorrhagic enteritis is not as severe as in lambs, and tends to be more patchy.