Pathological findings of nude mice inoculated with bovine Neospora.

Nude mice were infested with bovine Neospora by intraperitoneal inoculation of the brain and spinal cord from an aborted bovine fetus due to neosporosis. Inoculated mice showed severe emaciation and tetraplegia at about 2 to 4 months post-inoculation. Histopathologically, polyradiculoneuritis and peripheral neuritis were the major findings, and lesions in the central nervous system were located at periventricular and submeningeal areas of the cerebrum or at the white matter around the roots of radices of the spinal cord. These findings may suggest the protozoa inoculated into the abdominal cavity invaded the spinal cord via the spinal nerve and later reached the brain through the cerebrospinal fluid.