Unusual lesions - roe liver

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Shot a young roe buck this evening with unusual lesions in the liver. Everything else was completely normal - all the lymph nodes were fine, no sign of enlargement. Lungs all good, smooth and not granular. I sent the pics to my BIL who’s a vet and pretty sure it’s not TB but his view was to call it in as worth checking. The other unusual thing about the liver was it had a couple of folds and pockets around the edge, and an extra lobe on one side, rather than a nice smooth outline.

APHA vet called me back within about 5 mins and talked it through with me - by her own admission, this was a pretty rare type of call and they’re not used to dealing with suspect deer carcasses. Advice for this one (after much discussion) was to take it home, into the chiller but bag all the pluck and keep that and they’ll send someone on Monday to take samples. Carcass removed from site in a drag tray so no spread of any contam and careful biosecurity when I got back etc, just in case. Probably all over the top, but not seen a liver like this and I’ve shot and gralloched a fair few deer over the years.

Pics below (if I can figure out how to do it from my phone!) and I’ll update with the outcome when I know.

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View attachment 94982

View attachment 94983
 
Could well be, but my concern was that these were very large and thick walled lesions, almost solid. Two vets (one who’s seen the photos and one who I’ve described the problem over the phone) seemed concerned enough that they thought it worthy of further investigation.

as I say, hoping it’s all over the top but better safe than sorry!
 
Fluke. Roe get some pretty severe pathology from fluke, almost like they were reacting to foreign material as the fluke migrates through the liver. The solid lesions are relatively old and are resolving. TB doesn't go to such thick hard lumps in deer (usually!).
APHA should be used to calls like this, there's a fault in the system somewhere if they are not!
 
Spoke with APHA this morning and sent them the pics, which they've reviewed - they agreed it could well be fluke but they still have some concerns over TB. They're sending someone out to collect the liver for sampling to be sure.
 
I've cut up a lot of flukey sheep, and never seen one quite like that. Those lumps look more like cysts or abscesses. I suppose it could be old fluke damage in an animal that's recovered, but usually I see that as grossly thickened bile ducts. But I am talking sheep here. Deer may be different.
 
Deer are different VSS, not sure why. Red show less impact than roe, probably because the liver is more fibrous so harder to penetrate. Add to that some different immunity.
 
Update from APHA today... Vet has done a full post mortem of the pluck in the lab and confirmed the lumps in the liver were indeed fluke. Lymph nodes around the liver were all clear. However, they’ve found some “small, red, demarcated lesions” within 3 of the other lymph nodes. So whilst TB isn’t suspected, they’ve still sent some samples off for tests.

Ps. Thanks to Buchan for his continued insights and thoughts!
 
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