Pathology of experimental Cysticercus bovis infection in the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus Linné, 1758).

In the present study, the tissue reaction of the brain, skeletal muscles and heart in experimental C. bovis infection of the reindeer is described. There is non-purulent cysticercal leptomeningites with formation of multinucleate symplasms in the cerebral meninges, and lymphocytic encephalitis in the superficial layers of the cerebral cortex. The tissue reaction around the morphologically differentiated cysticercus in the meningeal location is similar to that in muscle cysticercosis of cattle. In muscles and heart, larvae die very soon after infection and they are resorbed in the course of formation of fibroplastic granulation tissue around them. C. bovis reaches the infective stage in cerebral localization only. The authors suppose that this phenomenon is due to a certain degree of immunological tolerance in the brain.