Intestinal ganglioneuroma in a neonatal Japanese black calf – Short communication JUN SASAKI 1 p , YUSUKE KURODA 1 , ATSUSHI UEKI 2 , BHUMINAND DEVKOTA 1,3 and NORIO YAMAGISHI 1,4 1 Department of Veterinary Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, 3-18-8 Ueda, Morioka, Iwate, 020-8550, Japan 2 Ueki Veterinary Hospital, Morioka, Iwate, Japan 3 Center for Biotechnology, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal 4 Department of Veterinary Sciences, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan Received: July 13, 2019 • Accepted: November 19, 2019 Published online: May 8, 2020 ABSTRACT A 1-day-old male calf presented with clinical signs of severe progressive abdominal distension. Abdominal radiographic and ultrasonic images revealed several loop-like structures in the small in- testine, which were indicative of gas retention. Experimental laparotomy was performed. However, the calf died during surgery. At necropsy, a round, well-circumscribed mass (3 3 3 3 2.5 cm) was found in the jejunal wall, and the jejunal lumen was narrowed. The mass was firm and had white to grey appearance on the cut surface. Histologically, the submucosa and the muscle layer were diffusely thickened due to abundance of neural tissues comprising several fascicles of nerve fibres and large aggregates of ganglion cells. Some ganglion cells contained basophilic Nissl substances in their cyto- plasm. Immunohistochemically, these cells were positive for S-100 and synaptophysin. Ultrastructural examination revealed that the neoplastic ganglion cells contained dense core vesicles in the cytoplasm. Based on these findings, the neoplastic lesion was diagnosed as ganglioneuroma in the jejunum. KEYWORDS calf, congenital, ganglioneuroma, intestine, Japanese black Ganglioneuroma is a rare tumour of the peripheral nervous system and is considered a benign neoplasm comprising both mature ganglion cells and nerve fascicles with axons, Schwann cells, fibroblasts and connective tissues (Koestner et al., 1999). This type of tumour has been observed in domestic animals, such as cattle (Cimprich and Ardington, 1975; Sokale and Ladds, 1983), horses (Allen et al., 1989; Grossi et al., 2013), pigs (Une et al., 1984; Murakami et al., 2011; Inoue et al., 2016), dogs (van den Ingh and Rothuizen, 1984; Hawkins and Summers, 1987; Ribas et al., 1990; Schueler et al., 1993; Reimer et al., 1999; Hermeyer et al., 2007; Sakai et al., 2011; Goto et al., 2018), cats (Patnaik et al., 1978; Kobayashi et al., 2012), buffaloes (Gupta and Singh, 1978) and cockatiels (Murphy and Shivaprasad, 2008). Ganglioneuroma in cattle has been observed at sites including the adrenal gland (Grossi et al., 2013), the spinal cord (Cimprich and Ardington, 1975), and intraabdominal serosal surfaces (Sokale and Ladds, 1983). In terms of occurrence, gan- glioneuromas can be solitary or multifocal, and they are more likely to be slow growing and minimally invasive (Schueler et al., 1993). Ganglioneuroma in the gastrointestinal tract is extremely rare in humans and domestic animals. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no report of an intestinal ganglioneuroma in cattle. Herein, we describe the clinical, histological, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural findings of intestinal ganglioneur- oma in a neonatal male calf. A male calf presented with abdominal distension at birth, and he was brought to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of Iwate University (VTH, Morioka, Iwate) a day after birth for emergency treatment of a suspected intestinal obstruction. The calf had been delivered with Acta Veterinaria Hungarica 68 (2020) 1, 49-52 DOI: 10.1556/004.2020.00012 © 2020 Akad emiai Kiad o, Budapest ORIGINAL ARTICLE *Corresponding author. Phone: +81 19 621 6166. E-mail: sasajun@iwate-u.ac.jp