Morphopathological Examination of Anencephaly and Concomitant Congenital Malformations in a Lamb

Abstract

The macro pathology changes of anencephaly and other accompanying congenital anomalies in a lamb described by with this report. Anencephaly is a condition in which a large part of the brain does not develop or is not formed at all as a result of incorrect closure of the neural sulcus during the development of the offspring in the intrauterine period. Anencephaly is generally not manifested alone and includes various anomalies. Although congenital malformations are very common in domestic ruminants, there is no report in the literature reporting an anencephaly anomaly in lambs. In this study, for the first time in the world, anencephaly in a lamb and some concomitant anomalies were presented. In this case in which morphological changes were examined, anencephaly anomalies, as well as anomalies of acrania, arhinia, anotia, anophthalmia, agnathia and microglossia were also encountered. Thanks to this case, the macroscopic findings of congenital head anomalies in a lamb that had not been previously reported were presented and evaluations were made on their possible etiological causes.