"Cara inchada”, a periodontal disease of cattle

Abstract

A disease of young cattle, called "cara inchada" (swollen face), was studied in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The clinical picture of the disease, in its advanced stage, is characterized by a periodontal inflammatory process with loosening and shedding of the premolar and molar teeth and by swelling of the maxillar and less frequently mandibular bone. The affected animals waste and many of them die by starvation. The disease was studied in pure and mixed bred zebu cattle. "Cara inchada" occurs in regions where pastures were formed with Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) after cutting the forest, on fertile low-land soils. In neighbouring areas situated in the higher country with "cerrado" vegetation the disease was not observed. Clinical examinations of cattle up to 1 year of age revealed an average incidence of the disease of 6%, but on one farm 22.6% of the calves were found to be affected. By oral examination of about 1,500 bovines on farms where "cara inchada" occurred and by postmortem examination of 30 bovines affected it was seen that initial paradental changes of the disease can already be found in 1 month old calves. Cattle from "cara inchada"-free regions brought into areas where the disease occurs, can be affected if they are transferred to these areas before the age of about 2 and a half years. Initial essentially non-inflammatory lesions of "cara inchada" were found in young calves at the medial portion of the interdental papilla between the maxillar P₂ and P₃ teeth in form of a paradontal pocket. The entrance of food and other particles is an aggravating factor of the process which finally results in an alveolar pyorrhoea and chronic ossifying periostitis. The clinical, post-mortem and histopathological findings indicate that the initial lesion takes place during eruption of the teeth, possibly due to impaired physiologic regeneration and repair of the paradontal connective tissue. The authors think that the "cara inchada" condition of cattle is caused by one or more alimentary factors.