Ovine nephropathy associated with the feeding of a semi-purified diet of low copper content.

Abstract A nephropathy was observed in ewes and lambs fed a semi-purified diet of low copper content. With a few exceptions, the severity of the renal lesions varied with the length of time the diet was fed and ranged from glomerular basement membrane thickening and hypercellularity to glomerular and tubular atrophy, degeneration and mineralization; in moderate and severely affected cases, arteriosclerosis was also a feature. The possible role of partial renal ischaemia in the pathogenesis of the lesion is discussed.