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.     

Anaplasma phagocytophilum in horses and ticks: a preliminary survey of Central Italy

Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the causative agent of granulocytic ehrlichiosis, affects several species of wild and domesticated mammals, including horses. In this work we compared direct and indirect methods to evaluate A. phagocytophilum presence in Central Italy: 135 sera were screened by IFA for A. phagocytophilum and other haemopathogens (Theileria equi and Babesia caballi). Each horse was also tested for A. phagocytophilum 16S rRNA with a nested-PCR technique. In order to examine the risk of A. phagocytophilum transmission, 114 ticks were examined for the presence of A. phagocytophilum by PCR targeting the 16S rRNA. The seroprevalence against A. phagocytophilum was 17.03% and 11 horses (8.14%) showed positive PCR results. The concordance rate of A. phagocytophilum detection between IFAT and PCR had a K value of 0.34.     

Brown spot caused by Sphingomonas sp. on yellow Spanish melon fruits in Spain*

Brown fruit spot symptoms were observed on yellow Spanish melons ( Cucumis melo var. inodorus ) grown in greenhouses at Almeria in Spain. Nonsporing, motile, rod-shaped bacteria were isolated from diseased fruits, which on nutrient agar produced small yellow colonies. Two bacterial isolates, used for further investigations, were pathogenic on fruits but not on cotyledons of Spanish melon plants. They provoked disease symptoms similar to those observed in the greenhouse. Both isolates were Gram-negative, catalase-positive, weakly oxidase-positive and phenylalanine deaminase-negative. They hydrolysed esculin but not gelatin and they utilized glucose oxidatively. Fatty acid analysis revealed that both isolates belong to the genus Sphingomonas . In addition, 16S rDNA sequence analysis, performed on one isolate, demonstrated that it had a significant sequence similarity (more than 98%) with Sphingomonas pruni and Sphingomonas mali , nonphytopathogenic bacteria isolated from plants. Although enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR and repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR seem to indicate that the Sphingomonas isolates from Spanish melon fruits may belong to a new species, DNA–DNA hydridization analysis is necessary to verify this hypothesis.     

Rhizoctonia solani Kühn AG 2-1 on kohlrabi in Italy

Rhizoctonia solani AG 2-1 was recorded in Central Italy on kohlrabi plants showing root and stem rot. After artificial inoculation the fungus caused damping-off of 7-day-old seedlings and root and stem rot of 4-month-old plants developed after 15 days of incubation. This seems to be the first record ofR. solani AG 2-1 on kohlrabi.     

Adaptation of forage legume species and cultivars under grazing in two extensive livestock systems in Italy

Legume-based pastures can increase the forage feeding value, the self-provision of protein sources and the sustainability of grazing systems. This 4-year study provided further knowledge on adaptation of forage legume species and cultivars for pasture sowing in extensive livestock systems of inland Italian areas. Three cultivars of lucerne (Medicago sativa L.), two of birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.) and two of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.) were evaluated at Casina (northern Apennines) under cattle grazing and at Torricella Sicura (central Apennines) under sheep grazing in farms using rotational grazing with high stocking rates. Semi-erect lucerne and birdsfoot trefoil morphological types, presumably more grazing-tolerant, were compared with erect types. Species showed contrasting adaptive responses, with lucerne at Casina and birdsfoot trefoil at Torricella Sicura being highest ranking for overall dry-matter yield. Lucerne at the former location, and both lucerne and birdsfoot trefoil at the latter one showed the highest final ground cover. The kind of exploitation at Casina (mob-grazing) may have contributed to lower persistence of birdsfoot trefoil. Sainfoin mostly showed potential as a short-term grazing species. Performance of cultivars within species varied with location. Erect cultivars yielded and persisted as well as, or better than, semi-erect cultivars, possibly because of the adoption of rotational grazing and their Italian origin (implying possible better adaptation to local conditions). Erect cultivars of lucerne were specifically adapted to the geographical area in which they were selected. Specific adaptation and targeted intensity of grazing may be the main determinants in the choice of species and cultivars.     

Vegetative Compatibility Grouping of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. gladioli from Saffron

Fusarium corm rot of saffron (Crocus sativus L.), incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. gladioli, causes severe yield losses in Italy. Major symptoms during flowering (October–November) include yellowing and wilting of shoots, basal stem rot and corm rot. Sixty-four isolates of F. oxysporum f. sp. gladioli, obtained from infected saffron crops located in Italy (Abruzzi, Tuscany and Umbria) and in Spain, were characterized by pathogenicity and vegetative compatibility. Chlorate-resistant, nitrate-nonutilizing (nit) mutants were used to determine vegetative compatibility among the isolates of the pathogen with the aim of examining the genetic relatedness among populations from different locations. All the isolates belonged to vegetative compatibility group 0340. Since saffron shares susceptibility to F. oxysporum f. sp. gladioli with other ornamental plants of the Iridaceae (Crocus, Gladiolus, Iris and Ixia), it is likely that a clone of the pathogen (VCG 0340) was introduced with other hosts and is responsible for the disease outbreak observed on saffron in Italy. Alternatively, or additionally, the clone of F. oxysporum f. sp. gladioli causing disease on saffron in other countries may have spread to the saffron fields in Italy through the import and dispersal of infested propagation material.     

Age-dependent prevalence of equid herpesvirus 5 infection

Equid herpesvirus 5 (EHV-5) infection was detected in a farm in Italy by the use of a semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting glycoprotein B of EHV-5 on nasal swabs and blood samples of clinically healthy and randomly selected Lipizzaner horses (n = 55). Twenty-five horses at the age of 4–17 years and 30 at an age of 1–3 years were sampled once. The association of the infection with these age-groups and the gender of the horses was investigated. The apparent prevalence of EHV-5 infection was significantly different between age-cohorts: it was higher in the younger group of horses with 73,3% and 80% positives in nasal swabs and blood respectively, compared to 40% of nasal swabs and 20% of blood in the older horses. An age-dependence therefore was observed: the young age is more frequently associated with EHV-5 infection.     

Effect of training status on immune defence related gene expression in Thoroughbred: Are genes ready for the sprint?

Athletic performance is both a stress factor and an adaptive response to exercise that may be modulated by training, reduce inflammation and help prevent disease. Studies on the endocrinology of exercise and training have demonstrated the existence of an integrated metabolic network of hormone and cytokine regulation. Subsequent molecular studies have shown that repeated bouts of exercise may establish new basal levels of gene expression at rest.The Thoroughbred horse may be a useful ‘exercise model’ for inter-individual comparisons between subjects with homogeneous genetic and environmental backgrounds and similar exercise management practices. In this study, the effects of training and acute effort on gene expression were evaluated with a real time PCR approach in athletic (n = 10) and sedentary horses (n = 9), using a previously characterised panel of genes known to be highly modulated during effort (CXCL2, TLR4, IL1β, IL8, IL1RII, IL18, IL6 and CEBPβ). A ‘rest comparison’ was performed to evaluate a training effect in both groups while a ‘race comparison’ was performed in athletic horses only (before, immediately after, and 12 h after racing) to determine the effect of acute effort.The results indicated that many of the investigated genes (TLR4, IL1β, IL1RII, IL18, IL6 and CEBPβ) were expressed to a greater extent in athletic horses compared to sedentary animals when both were at rest. However, a time-course comparison in the athletic horses revealed that genes exhibiting the highest levels of expression at rest did not show significant changes after the race. The findings suggested that training may exert a conditioning on gene expression at rest leading to a more prompt response to exercise-induced stress in Thoroughbreds.