Very nice specimen.If it is due to traumatic pericarditis (bacterial and chronic) there is a possibility of infection in the associated structures like diaphragm , liver , reticulum etc., In my opinion it may be due to infection which is localized only to the cardiac area . Being physically seen the specimen I expect your reply to this.

I’d rather classify the inflamation as subacute. Fibrinous exsudate is more associated with acute than to chronic inflamation. The latter is also characterized, among other things, by fibrosis (building-up of type I collagen. Neutrophils together with lymphocytes and plasmacytes are characteristic of subacute inflamations. Also, in a chronic inflamation, there can be superimposed bouts of acute inflamation (exacerbations), characterized by haemorrhages and fibrinous exsudate.

This sounds like a ductal plate malformation to me

By Danielle Brown

Most likely due to ALV. ALV can cause all sorts of neoplasms besides lymphoid leukosis.

Our pathologists answer:
Thank you for your interesting comment. Unfortunately we lack epidemiologial information on the case and ALV-PCR to confirm this possibility.

In this case it is difficult to diagnose a metastatic melanoma if no histopathology of the lymph node is available.

I agree with banding and removal of the ear in hematoma cases. When left untreated it develops painful infection causing the pig to go off feed and in some cases fallout of the group. I have seen lancing (opening the wound for draining) and that is painful and introduces a new route of infection. I do believe if you are seeing a large number of these in a flow to go back and evaluate piglet handling in farrowing or early nursery.

As a hog producer I can attest to the previous comment, Our Vet advised removal of the affected ear with an elastrator band. I do not like to do it either but it seems to be the only effective method of dealing with the hematoma. I have tried draining the fluid that collects in the ear but it just continues to collect.

With ear necrosis, I would expect that there would be some bilateral loss of both ears. I have never seen it go beyond half of the ear. A more likely etiology would be an aural hematoma. Many people band these with a rubber band at the base of the ear which results in total loss of the ear and thus a scar like you describe. I personally do not like this treatment as I believe it is extremely painful for a couple of days but it is a common treatment.

I am posting an article for comparative purposes and because I think it has a good pic of the gross description of poycystic kidney above. Unfortunately, our histo was cut from the article.
Just realized that I cannot attach to this thread
I posted the peer-reviewed pic of polycystic kidneys in color as well as the link to the published article here
https://www.facebook.com/UrikaLLC?ref=hl
Hey, also, please feel free to like the page

Interesting case. Personally I might put renal dysplasia at the top of the differentials list – polycystic kidneys usually show large cysts, sometimes up to 1-2 cm diameter. In this case the cavities are much smaller and appear to mainly be abnormally dilated glomeruli, which could occur from downstream blockage or abnormal development. The presence of normal-looking renal structures does not exclude a diagnosis of renal dysplasia, in which the kidneys are usually a mixture of normal and abnormal nephrons. I would look closely for other histologic features of dysplasia, such as areas of undifferentiated mesenchymal connective tissue, tubules with abnormally hyperplastic lining, glomeruli with fetal appearance, and prominent periglomerular fibrosis.
thanks for sharing the case.