A case of multiple cutaneous malignant lymphoma in reindeer, probably of immunologic-parasitic origin.

In a reindeer herd brought in for slaughter in February 1977 in Finnmark county, one animal about 11/2 years old, was found to have about 20 hairless nodules, each about 5 cm in diameter, in the skin. The nodules were of discoid shape and well demarcated, and made only slight impressions in the underlying muscles. They were found to be neoplasms, and should probably be classified as a malignant lymphoma of histiocytic type (Smith et al. 1972). Metastases were found in the prescapular lymph nodes. The animal was well-fed and without clinical signs of general disease. The distribution of the nodules and the absence of subcutaneous larvae of the very common reindeer grub fly (Oedemagena tarandi) led to the conclusion that the condition was most probably a result of a pathological immune reaction to parasitic larvae.