Valutazione istologica del timo in vitelloni da carne trattati con desametazone e associazione desametazone-17b-estradiolo

An experimental administration of desametazone, alone and with 17βestradiol, was carried out to asses the role of corticosteroids and oestrogens on histo morphological thymus lesions. Caudal mediastinic lymphnode was also analysed. 24 finishing bulls were treated with desametazone (group D) or desametazone and estradiol (group E) and compared with a control group (K). The microscopic analysis of thymus showed lymphoid depletion and cortical atrophy: the lesions were severe and diffuse in group D and attenuated in group E. Lymphnodes was not specifically affected by treatments. The study has increased the data as reference for the control of illegal treatments in beef bovine: it has permitted to confirm the correlation between lesions and administration of corticosteroids, but especially to notice the modulating action on thymus lesions due to interaction with oestrogens. Moreover, the results obtained have confirmed thymus as the only target organ for corticosteroids, whose histological analysis cannot be replaced by lymphnodes evaluation.