Congenital Goitre in Goats

One full-term, dead foetus was successfully removed from a 5-year old, crossbred black and white goat. the goat was stall-fed with green fodder and it delivered two dead foetuses in the previous pregnancy. the foetus had a large swelling in the cranio-ventral neck region. upon cutting skin, the swelling revealed extremely enlarged thyroid gland having two asymmetrical lobes with the right lobe was 8.10 x 15.0 cm and the left 5.5 x 8.6 cm in size. the skin was devoid of hair, pale-white and thickened with myxedema. histologically, the enlarged thyroid consisted of colloid goitre and the lungs were oedematous. this case of congenital goitre was unusual and differed from the reported cases in two aspects viz 1) the two lobes were enlarged but unequal and 2) histologically goitre was colloid instead of usual hyperplastic type.