Histopathology of Skin Warts in Cattle

Abstract

Warts consider one of the almost health diseases in cattle. This study aims to study histoplathological changes in warts of clinically identified infected cattle. An overall 200 cattle of both sexes and different ages, existed at different areas in Al-Qadisiyah province were examined clinically to detect an existence of warts on different parts of the body during June-July (2023). The findings identified 13.5% of study animals were positively infected with warts. Grossly, warts were appeared as exophytic proliferation cutaneous lesions of many variable sizes in different body sites; mainly ear, mandible, muzzle, udder/teat, and perianal (genitalia). Lumpy or cauliflower multiple papillary grey forms were existed a mostly in exposed-external areas of ear, mouth, muzzle; while, white to pink warts were seen in udder and perianal regions. Microscopically, warts showed the presence of marked erosion and necrotic lesion in exposed area of warts, eosinophilic necrotic debris and severely inflamed inverted papilliform projections extending to mass center, segments of spinosum, squamous cells epithelium, as cords and nodules enclosed centrally red keratin material surrounded by wide zone of fibrous connective tissue, high magnification of nodule enclosed centrally red keratin material (pattern of half-cross onion), surrounded by wide zone of fibrous connective tissue, inclusion bodies, many koilocytes with simple division, accentric keratosis, hyperplasia of epidermal cells and infiltration of inflammatory cells. In conclusion, gross diagnosis of warts revealed a high prevalence of infection in study areas. Also, a wide variety of irreversible skin changes were occurred due to warts. However, application of other advanced diagnostic assays such as electron microscope and immunohistochemistry could provide a moreover data about the virus and their types/strains.