PATHOLOGY OF

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM -
1
Introduction
The digestive tract includes:
• the oral cavity and associated organs (lips, teeth, tongue, and
salivary glands),
• the esophagus,
• the forestomachs (reticulum, rumen, omasum) of ruminants
and the true stomach in all species,
• the small intestine,
• the liver,
• the exocrine pancreas,
• the large intestine, and
• the rectum and anus.
Gut-associated lymphoid tissue (tonsils, Peyer’s
patches,
diffuse lymphoid tissue) is distributed along the GI tract.
PATHOLOGY OF ORAL CAVITY
STOMATITIS: Stomatitis in the inflammation of
mucosa of oral cavity
• Gingivitis : Inflammation of gums
• Glossitis : Inflammation of tongue
• Cheilitis : Inflammation of lips
• Tonsilitis : Inflammation of tonsil
• Palatitis / Lampas: Inflammation of palates.

Malformations: Hare lip (Chelioschisis)- fissure in the

lip due to a failure of fusion of the upper lip along the
midline or philtrum.
Cleft palate (Palatoschisis)- fissure in the palate results
from a failure of fusion of the lateral palatine procèsses.
Glossochisis:- fissure in tongue.
Harelip
Cleft palate
Brachygnathia:-(brachy- short, gnathia- jaw)
It is the short jaw.
1)superior- upper jaw
2)inferior- lower jaw
Prognathia:- anteriorly protruded jaw.
agnathia:- absence of jaw.
Aetiology
• It may be a primary affection or may occur as secondary to other
diseases
viz. gastritis or infectious diseases.
• The causes are
• Physical
• Trauma by awns, thorns, burrs, wood pieces, glass pieces,
sharp bits,
irregular sharp teeth, sharp edged feeding utensils.
• Thermal injuries: Hot drenches and eating frozen foods.
• Chemical : caustic alkalies, corrosive acids, fertilizers.
• Deficiency of vitamins
• Hypovitaminosis A especially in fowl
• Niacin deficiency : Black tongue in dogs
• Microorganisms
• Bacteria: Actinomyces bovis; Actinobacillus
lignieresi; Fusobacterium necrophorum; Pseudomonas
aeruginosa;
Streptococci andStaphylococci.
• Fungi: Candida albicans and Oidium pullorum in poultry.
• Viruses: Foot and Mouth disease; Rinderpest: Virus diarrhoea
-
mucosal disease; Infectious canine hepatitis.
Macroscopic features
• Catarrhal : Mucous exudation in oral cavity
• Fibrinous : False membrane in oral mucosa
• Vesicular : Vesicles in oral mucosal e.g. FMD
• Erosive : Erosions in oral mucosa e.g. Rinderpest
• Ulcerative : Presence of ulcers in oral mucosa e.g. mucosal disease

Microscopic features
• Congestion of oral mucosa
• Presence of erosions, vesicles or ulcers
• Infiltration of neutrophils, lymphocytes and macrophages.
• Presence of fibrinous exudates in the form of diphtheritic membrane
Types
Vesicular stomatitis
• Vesicles, blebs or blisters containing clear fluid are formed on the
mucosa.
• Seen in Foot and mouth disease, infectious vesicular exanthema
and
infectious vesicular stomatitis.
• Rupture of the blisters results in the formation of erosions, which
subsequently heal.
• Catarrhal and vesicular stomatitis may develop into ulcerative
variety.
Fibrinous and necrotic stomatitis
• This is seen in infection by Fusobacterium nerophorum.
Diphtheritic stomatitis
• Fowl pox produces diphtheritic stomatitis and pharyngitis in
which a
grayish membrane is found.
Gangrenous stomatitis
• Very severe irritants may cause gangrenous stomatitis.
Vesicular stomatitis
Inflammation of different parts of digestive
system
Affected part Terminology

Salivary gland sialoadenitis

esophagus esophagitis

crop ingluvitis

stomach gastritis

inestine enteritis

colon colitis

caecum typhlitis

liver hepatitis

Bile duct cholangitis

Gall bladder cholecystitis

Salivary Glands
• Sialoadenitis- inflammation of a salivary
gland.
• Ptylism: It is excessive salivation, which occur
in some specific diseases as:- foot and mouth
disease, infectious vesicular stomatitis.
• Ranula- cystic distension of the duct of the
sublingual or submaxillary gland that occurs
on the floor of the mouth by the site of the
tongue.
• Sialoliths- stone in salivary gland mostly seen
in horses.
PATHOLOGY OF OESOPHAGUS
Choke is esophageal obstruction when the esophagus is obstructed by
food or foreign objects.
Occurrence
• It occurs in horses and cattle, but more common in the former.
Aetiology
• Old age
• In cattle, large objects of food- beet root, carrot, apples, potatoes,
fetal membranes, sticks and wire. In dogs, large bones.
• Impacted masses of feed due to improper chewing, bad teeth and
rapid gulping of dry feed.
• Lesions of esophagus – stenosis or diverticulum cause repeated
choking.
• Enlarged lymph nodes- mediastinal and cervical.
• Enlarged thyroids.
• Neoplasms of adjacent tissue especially thymus - thymoma in
new-
born animals.
Choke may be complete or incomplete.
• Complete choke
• In complete choke, feed will be returned and water will flow
through the nostrils when animal is watered.
• Aspiration of the feed will cause secondary foreign-body
pneumonia.
• In cattle, complete obstruction will cause dangerous tympany.
• Because of pressure, ischemia and resultant necrosis and
gangrene may develop.
• Infection may spread to the surrounding tissues- cellulitis or to
the lungs- gangrenous pneumonia.
• Resultant sapremia or toxaemia is the cause of death in fatal
Case due to asphyxia.
• Partial choke
• Partial obstruction will give rise to dilatation of esophagus above
the obstruction - the esophageal diverticulum .
Macroscopic features
• Tympany
• Gangrene, sapremia and toxaemia
• Sac like dialatation “Esophageal
diverticulum”
• Perforation due to sharp bone ends.

Microscopic features
• Necrosis gangrene at a point of
obstruction
• Congestion hemorrhage in perforated
cases
Picture showing choke in esophagus
ESOPHAGITIS: This is inflammation of the oesophageal
mucosa.
Occurrence
• It is rare in animals because of the thick and resistant condition
of the mucosa.
• Aetiology
• Trauma by probing, stomach tube or foreign bodies.
• Chemicals – corrosives.
• In the fowl, thallium sulphate poisoning.
• Avitaminosis A in Fowls.
• Viral enteritis and mucosal disease in cattle.
• Parasites – bot fly larvae in horses and hypoderma larvae in
cattle.
• Persistent vomiting in dogs and pigs.
Macroscopic features
• Congestion
• Ulcer formation
• Red streaks of catarrhal inflammation
• Stenosis due to fibrous nodules or inflammatory exudates
• Enlargement of glands

Microscopic features
• Congestion, haemorrhage
• Ulceration
• Infiltration of neutrophils, lymphocytes
• Sub-epithelial fibrosis/nodules by Spirocerea lupi
 PATHOLOGY OF
STOMACH
GASTRITIS : Inflammation of the stomach is called gastritis.
Occurrence: Gastritis is a fairly common condition in animals.
Predisposing causes: Close confinement and unsanitary conditions
where bacteria thrive contaminating feeds and feeding utensils
Aetiology
• Physical
• Faulty dentition prevents mastication
• Foreign bodies may traumatize the gastric mucosa.
• Feeding very coarse material
• Feeding with frozen foods
• Spoiled, mouldy and fermented hay and silage or
easily fermentable
feeding foods.
• When heavily fatigued animals are fed, the feed is not easily
digested, stagnates, ferments and so produces irritation.
• Too sudden changes of feed
Chemicals
• Uremia; (Excretion gastritis is caused by the excretion of the toxic substances
through gastric glands)
• Caustic and corrosive chemicals like mercury, lead, copper, arsenic and
phosphorus

Bacterial
• In calves - enterotoxemia and colibacillosis; in pigs - erysipelas,
vibrionic dysentery, salmonellosis and colibacillosis.

Viruses
• Pig- hog cholera; transmissible gastro-enteritis in baby pigs
• Cattle - rinderpest, mucosal disease.
• In chicken - Ranikhet disease causes haemorrhagic proventriculitis.

Fungi
• Mucormycosis, moniliasis and aspergillosis cause gastritis in many
animals.

Parasites
• Stomach worms - Trichostrongylus sp., Hemonchus sp., Ostertagia sp., larval
paramphistomes in ruminants.
• Larvae of Habronema sp. and Gastrophilus equi in horses.
• In pigs Hyostrongylus rubidus, Ascarops strongylina and Physocephalus
sexalatus.
TYPES OF GASTRITIS

Acute gastritis
• may be catarrhal, fibrinous, suppurative, haemorrhagic or necrotic,
depending upon the cause and their severity.
• By far the most common is the catarrhal and to a lesser extent, the
hemorrhagic.
• In gastritis, food does not get digested. Motility of the gastric wall is
retarded. Irritation may produce pain and vomiting.

Catarrhal gastritis
• The gastric mucosa is covered with mucus.
• The mucosa in some places may show ulceration.
• The mucosa is thick and red.
• The mucosa shows catarrhal exudation, hyperemia and leuococytic
infiltration.
• Some of the gastric glands may be damaged and lost.

Acute hemorrhagic gastritis

• uremia
• acute infectious diseases like pasteurellosis, braxy, leptospirosis (in dogs).
• Due to haemorrhage, the mucosa is bright red in color and the gastric
contents are blood stained.
• Digested blood (acid haematin) imparts a brownish coloration to the
contents.
Parasitic Gastritis
• Cattle and sheep: Hemonchus contortus, Ostertagia ostertagi, Trichostrongylus
axei
• Horses: Habronema larvae, Trichostrongylus axei and Gastrophilus equi larvae.
• Pig: Hyostrongylus rubidus, Physocephalus sexalatus. Simondsia paradoxa.
• Cats: Gnathostoma spinigerum
• The strongyles are blood suckers and they produce minute injuries on the
mucosa.
• The larvae may burrow into the mucosa for completion of their life cycle and
thereby cause damage to the epithelium and glands.
• Heavy infestation besides causing anemia will produce catarrhal gastritis.
• Gastrophilus sp. in the stomach may produce ulcers
• Habronema larvae live in granulomatous nodules which may be infected by
secondary bacteria and form abscesses.

Chronic gastritis
• The mucous membrane is thickened and covered with tenacious, viscid
glassy mucus.
• This condition is usually of a hypertrophic type with thickening of the
gastric wall.
• There is exfoliation of the epithelium
• The mucosa may be thrown into polypoid folds (polypoid gastritis).
• The interstitial connective tissue hyperplasia exaggerates the mucosal