A toxic substance is likely killing off the axons, says Ian Duncan, a neurologist at the University of Wisconsin who has collaborated with the FWC. He’s an expert on disorders affecting the myelin sheath, the fatty layer that protects nerve fibers in a mammal’s central nervous system. Initially it looked like FLM may involve deterioration of the myelin sheath, but analysis of the dead panthers’ spinal cords showed that not to be the case.
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