Effect of chronic experimental Trypanosoma congolense infection on the ovaries, pituitary, thyroid and adrenal glands in female goats.

Abstract

Changes in the ovaries, pituitary, thyroid and adrenal glands in Small East African normally cycling female goats chronically infected with T. congolense are described. Marked fibrosis of the ovaries, a decrease in the number of primordial and primary follicles and atresia of growing follicles at the tertiary stage resulting in lack of corpora lutea were observed. The pituitary glands revealed reduced degranulation of the basophils and slight hypertrophy of the acidophils. The thyroids were extensively degenerated and atrophied whereas the adrenal cortices were hypertrophied in some regions and atrophied in others. It is concluded that chronic trypanosomiasis causes marked reproductive lesions in females comparable to those previously described in male animals.