WildLife Group
of the SAVA
Vet Diagnostix
Iron Storage Disease in a Golden Wildebeest
Dr Rick Last – BVSc; M.Med.Vet (Pathology)
Specialist Veterinary Pathologist
Vetdiagnostix – Veterinary Pathology Services
We received formalin-fixed tissues from a Golden
Wildebeest cow that had died of complicated
metabolic disease.
The stand out histopathology was observed in
the liver with moderate hepatocellular vacuolar
degeneration (fatty change) and intracytoplasmic
accumulation of granular brown iron-like pigment in
many hepatocytes. (Figure 1) Pearls attaining for iron
reveal strong positive blue staining of this pigment
within hepatocytes. (Figure 2)
Based on these findings a diagnosis of presumptive
iron storage disease was made. Iron storage
disease is an iron overload disorder associated with
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progressive accumulation or iron, mainly in the form
of ferritin and hemosiderin, which causes organ
injury particularly to the liver, but can also be found
in the heart, pancreas and kidney tubules. The
distribution of iron pigment in iron storage disease is
in hepatocytes, kupfer cells and portal macrophages.
This differs from hemosiderosis associated with
hemolysis where iron pigment accumulation occurs
primarily in macrophages of the spleen and liver.
Iron accumulation in hepatocytes is rarely seen with
h [[