Detection of bacterial contamination and DNA quantification in stored blood units in 2 veterinary hospital blood banks

Blood transfusions in veterinary medicine have become increasingly more common and are now an integral part of lifesaving and advanced treatment in small and large animals. Important risks associated with transfusion of blood products include the transmission of various infectious diseases. Several guidelines suggest what infectious agents to screen for in canine and feline transfusion medicine. However, while the risk of bacterial contamination of blood products during storage and administration has not been documented in veterinary medicine, it has emerged as a cause of morbidity and mortality in human transfusion medicine. Clinical experience shows that the majority of blood component bacterial contaminations are caused by only a few species. Unlike other types of bacteria, psychrotolerant species like Pseudomonas spp. and Serratia spp. can proliferate during the storage of blood units at 4°C from a very low titer at the time of blood collection to a clinically significant level (> 10⁵ CFU/mL) causing clinical sepsis resulting from red blood cell concentrate transfusions in human medicine. The purpose of this report was to describe the detection and quantification procedures applied in 4 cases of bacterial contamination of canine and feline blood units, which suggest the need for further investigations to optimize patients’ safety in veterinary transfusion medicine.     

Incorporation of sunflower oil or linseed oil in equine compound feedstuff: 1 Effects on haematology and on fatty acids profiles in the red blood cells membranes

Eight trained horses (6 mares – 2 geldings, 6 Selle Français, 2 Trotteur Français, 12 ± 5.8 years old, 538 ± 72.5 kg) were offered three diets to potentially affect haematology and the fatty acids (FA) profiles in red blood cells (RBC) membranes. The control diet was composed of 50% hay and 50% concentrate containing mainly rolled barley (48%) and whole spelt (48%). In the case of sunflower oil diet, sunflower oil (62.0% of α‐linoleic acid, LA) was incorporated at a rate of 8% and substituted by an equal proportion of barley. In the linseed oil diet, first cold‐pressed linseed oil (56.0% of α‐linolenic acid, ALA) was utilised at a similar incorporation rate of 8%. The experimental design consisted of three 3 × 3 latin squares with one being incomplete. Each period lasted 8 weeks. On average, the total feed intake (straw excluded) was 6.2 kg/day and the oil intake 0.278 kg/day. The oils significantly increased the concentrations of RBC, haemoglobin and haematocrit. The oils had no significant impact on the haematology profiles except that platelets tended to decrease in both oil‐based diets. The most abundant FA in the RBC membranes of the control diet samples were in the decreasing order LA, C18:1n9‐7, C18:0, C16:0 and the arachidonic acid (ARA) respectively. The sunflower oil supplementation slightly increased the amount of LA (36.23 vs. 34.72 mg/dl, p = 0.55) and C22:4n‐6 (0.21 vs. 0.09 mg/dl, p = 0.22), while the decrease was observed in case of other FA (C16:1n‐7, 1.08 vs. 1.42 mg/dl, p = 0.03), C20:3n‐6 (0.22 vs. 0.31 mg/dl, p = 0.02), and ARA (1.17 vs. 1.63 mg/dl, p = 0.08). Linseed oil induced similar effects in the n‐6 series FA profiles. In the context of practical applications, our results show that linseed oil incorporation in the diet could improve the haematology and the n‐3 FA profiles potentially leading to an increased performance.     

The suitability of some blood gas and biochemical parameters as diagnostic tools or early indicators of ascites syndrome in broiler sire lines

In recent few years, there have been some attempts to find a reliable indicator trait as a selection criterion against susceptibility to ascites syndrome (AS). Blood parameters were of great interest as they could be measured in live animals without implementing an ascites‐inducing challenge (AIC). In this work, the suitability of some blood parameters was evaluated for diagnosing AS‐susceptible chicks in later steps of the disease in trial 1 as well as their early predictive ability in trial 2. In the first trial, one hundred 1‐day‐old chicks from two pure broiler lines namely S₁ and S₂ and, in the second trial, 226 1‐day‐old chicks from line S₂ were subjected to AIC. Saline drinking water (1200 mg/l) and lower‐than‐standard ambient temperatures were the implemented AICs in trials 1 and 2 respectively. The blood parameters including pH, partial pressure of O₂ (pO₂), partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂), bicarbonate ion concentration (BIC), percentage of haematocrit (HCT) and saturated haemoglobin (SaO₂) were measured twice per each bird at days 28 and 35 in trial 1 and once in trial 2 at day 21. The results of the first trial revealed that in line S₂ some of the blood parameters differed significantly between the ascitic and non‐ascitic groups following exposure to AIC. In this line, the incidence of AS was accompanied by a lower pO₂, SaO₂ and BIC, while with higher pCO₂ and HCT values. In the second trial, however, although almost all of the parameters showed meaningful differences between the ascitic and non‐ascitic broilers, only mean difference of BIC parameter was statistically significant. The general conclusion of this study is that the blood parameters can somewhat have diagnostic ability in the condition in which the AIC is already present, whereas the results did not approve their usefulness as early predictors of AS.     

Physiological and biochemical changes of females of Piracanjuba,subjected to induced reproduction

The aim of this experiment was to compare the level of fish female stress during induced reproduction with pituitary extract by two different methods, natural and semiextruded. The reproductive efficiency was 62.5% in the seminatural treatment and 100% in the extruded. Obtained egg volume was 5200 ml and 4000 ml, for seminatural and extruded treatments respectively. The mean number of eggs was 46.7 for the seminatural and 52.0 and for the extruded treatment. The percentage of viable eggs was, respectively, 87.2% and 8.17% for the natural treatment and extruded semimethods. Blood samples were collected to quantify cortisol and glucose levels, as well as red cell series and lymphocyte count. Fishes submitted to induction procedures showed elevated cortisol and glucose levels, compared to the control animals. The results for haematocrit, haemoglobin concentration and red blood cell count showed no significant differences among groups. Significant differences found in the number of lymphocytes and monocytes suggest the general adaptation syndrome. Our results suggest the reproductive induction process with extrusion of gametes as a more stressful method than seminatural reproduction process.     

Effects of dietary Tenebrio molitor meal inclusion in free‐range chickens

Insects are currently being considered as a novel protein source for animal feeds, because they contain a large amount of protein. The larvae of Tenebrio molitor (TM) have been shown to be an acceptable protein source for broiler chickens in terms of growth performance, but till now, no data on histological or intestinal morphometric features have been reported. This study has had the aim of evaluating the effects of dietary TM inclusion on the performance, welfare, intestinal morphology and histological features of free‐range chickens. A total of 140 medium‐growing hybrid female chickens were free‐range reared and randomly allotted to two dietary treatments: (i) a control group and (ii) a TM group, in which TM meal was included at 75 g/kg. Each group consisted of five pens as replicates, with 14 chicks per pen. Growth performance, haematological and serum parameters and welfare indicators were evaluated, and the animals were slaughtered at the age of 97 days. Two birds per pen (10 birds/treatment) were submitted to histological (liver, spleen, thymus, bursa of Fabricius, kidney, heart, glandular stomach and gut) and morphometric (duodenum, jejunum and ileum) investigations. The inclusion of TM did not affect the growth performance, haematological or serum parameters. The morphometric and histological features were not significantly affected either, thus suggesting no influence on nutrient metabolization, performance or animal health. Glandular stomach alterations (chronic flogosis with epithelial squamous metaplasia) were considered paraphysiological in relation to free‐range farming. The observed chronic intestinal flogosis, with concomitant activation of the lymphoid tissue, was probably due to previous parasitic infections, which are very frequently detected in free‐range chickens. In conclusion, the findings of this study show that yellow mealworm inclusion does not affect the welfare, productive performances or morphological features of free‐range chickens, thus confirming that TM can be used safely in poultry diets.     

不同驱虫药驱虫后伊犁马血液生化指标变化的研究

[目的] 研究不同驱虫药对伊犁马血液生化指标的影响,为伊犁马科学驱虫及健康养殖提供参考。[方法] 将平均体重（265.5±35.6）kg、出生日期相近的40匹1岁伊犁马随机分为5组,每组8匹,分别为对照组、试验Ⅰ组、试验Ⅱ组、试验Ⅲ组和试验Ⅳ组。在相同的饲养管理和日粮营养水平条件下,对照组不驱虫,在试验开始第1天,试验Ⅰ组使用伊维菌素驱虫,试验Ⅱ组使用吡喹酮驱虫,试验Ⅲ组使用阿苯达唑驱虫,试验Ⅳ组使用伊维菌素和阿苯达唑的混合药剂驱虫;在试验第14天采集马匹血液样品,测定血浆氮代谢指标、葡萄糖及酶相关指标、脂代谢指标及金属离子指标。[结果] ①试验Ⅲ组总蛋白（TP）浓度最低,与对照组、试验Ⅰ组、试验Ⅱ组及试验Ⅳ组相比,分别降低了8.16%、7.15%、4.98%及6.62%（P>0.05）。对照组及各试验组白蛋白（ALB）、尿素（UREA）浓度均无显著（P>0.05）差异。与对照组相比,试验Ⅲ组及试验Ⅳ组血浆中UREA浓度分别降低了33.15%及36.10%（P>0.05）。②与对照组相比,试验Ⅰ组、试验Ⅱ组、试验Ⅲ组、试验Ⅳ组丙氨酸氨基转移酶（ALT）活力分别降低了26.51%、21.11%、47.14%及52.38%（P>0.05）。试验Ⅲ组血浆中碱性磷酸酶（ALP）活力低于对照组,降低了0.19%（P>0.05）。与对照组相比,试验Ⅱ组和试验Ⅳ组的乳酸脱氢酶（LDH）活力显著（P<0.05）升高,分别提高了17.84%、13.51%;谷草转氨酶（AST）活力分别提高了5.40%和4.08%（P>0.05）。③对照组血浆中甘油三酯（TG）、肌酐（CREA）及尿酸（UA）的含量与各试验组相比均无显著（P>0.05）差异。试验Ⅰ组及试验Ⅳ组血浆中CREA浓度较对照组分别提高13.38%和9.86%（P>0.05）。试验Ⅱ组血浆中胆碱酯酶（CHE）活力显著（P<0.05）高于试验Ⅲ组,提高了17.70%。④对照组血浆中Mg²⁺浓度与各试验组相比差异不显著（P>0.05）;试验Ⅲ组血浆中Ca²⁺浓度最低,与对照组、试验Ⅰ组、试验Ⅱ组及试验Ⅳ组相比,分别降低了23.44%、16.40%、25.89%及21.43%（P<0.05）。[结论] 综合来看,使用伊维菌素和阿苯达唑混合驱虫,对伊犁马血浆中的氮代谢、糖脂代谢指标及肝功能代谢酶活力改善效果更明显。