Vascular encephalopathy associated with bacterial endocarditis in four dogs

Vascular encephalopathy is a commonly encountered clinical complication of infectious endocarditis in humans, but it has been infrequently reported in dogs. A series of four dogs with bacterial endocarditis that subsequently developed acute onset of neurological deficits is described. Clinical signs, diagnostic test results, and outcomes for each case are presented and compared with the human clinical syndrome.     

Direct and Specific Assessment of Colonisation of Wheat Rhizoplane by Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf29A

The efficacy of fluorescent pseudomonads as suppressors of soil-borne diseases is linked to their ability to colonise plant roots. Monitoring the dynamics of biocontrol agents in the rhizosphere should improve the irreliability. We designed a pair of Sequenced Characterised Amplified Region (SCAR) primers specific to Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf29A, based on a specific 700 bp RAPD product selected in a previous work. Primer specificity was tested with DNA samples extracted from rhizospheric soil and rhizoplane of wheat plants grown in two different non-sterile soils. We assessed the total population of Pf29A by PCR and the culturable population by counting a tetracycline-resistant Pf29A transformant producing Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), on selective medium 5 days after inoculation of non-sterile soil. SCAR primers were specific for Pf29A in both soils. We evaluated the limit of detection to 14.2 fg of target DNA, equivalent to 242 Pf29A cells per cm of wheat root. Culturable populations of Pf29A transformant accounted for 13% and 4% of the total populations 5 days after treatment with 10³ and 10⁷ CFU of transformed Pf29A per gram of soil. The SCAR derived sequence is a good candidate to develop a strain specific and sensitive PCR-quantification of Pf29A available for population dynamic studies in fields. We confirm that only a small proportion of the total Pf29A rhizosphere population is culturable.     

Clinicopathologic, histologic, and toxicologic findings in 70 cats inadvertently exposed to pet food contaminated with melamine and cyanuric acid

OBJECTIVE: To document clinicopathologic, histologic, and toxicologic findings in cats inadvertently exposed to pet food contaminated with melamine and cyanuric acid. DESIGN: Case series. ANIMALS: 70 cats from a single cattery inadvertently fed contaminated food that was the subject of a March 2007 recall. PROCEDURES: Clinical signs, clinicopathologic and histopathologic findings, and results of toxicologic analyses were recorded. RESULTS: Clinical signs were identified in 43 cats and included inappetence, vomiting, polyuria, polydipsia, and lethargy. Azotemia was documented in 38 of the 68 cats for which serum biochemical analyses were performed 7 to 11 days after consumption of the contaminated food. One cat died, and 13 were euthanized. Histologic examination of kidney specimens from 13 cats revealed intratubular crystalluria, tubular necrosis with regeneration, and subcapsular perivascular inflammation characterized by perivascular fibroplasia or fibrosis and inflammation with intravascular fibrin thrombi. Toxicologic analyses revealed melamine and cyanuric acid in samples of cat food, vomitus, urine, and kidneys. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In cats unintentionally fed pet food contaminated with melamine and cyanuric acid, the most consistent clinical and pathologic abnormalities were associated with the urinary tract, specifically tubular necrosis and crystalluria.     

Lameness and heart rate elevation in the exercising horse

Seven, healthy, conditioned, Quarter Horse mares with previous treadmill experience were each fitted with an adjustable heart bar shoe on the left front foot and a counterbalanced bar shoe on the right front foot. Three treatments were studied: sound, slightly lame, and obviously lame at a trot. Each subject performed one standardized exercise test (SET) daily on three consecutive days. Each subject underwent one treatment during a SET. Treatment order was randomly assigned. The SET consisted of a 5-rain exercise period at 3.2 m/sec on a treadmill at an 11% grade. Heart rate (HR) was determined at rest, 20 rain after the induction of lameness before the SET, during the last 30 sec of the SET, and at 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 60 min postexercise. The Student's paired t test was used to compare HR means for the three treatments at each monitoring interval. Heart rate was higher in slightly lame trials compared to sound trials as rest and at 0.5 through 10 and 30 through 60 min postexercise (P<0.05 to P<0.001). Lame trials evidenced higher HRs than slightly lame trials at rest and at 0.5, 2, 4, and 5 rain of recovery (P<0.05). When lame HRs were compared to sound HRs, differences were noted at rest and at 0.5 through 60 min postexercise (P<0.01 to P<0.001). The heart bar shoe as designed for the treatment of laminitis was effective as a noninvasive, nonpermanent model of lameness pain in normal horses. Increases in HR at rest and during recovery from exercise were observed with experimentally induced lameness. The degree of HR increase seen with lameness was a function of the degree of lameness induced.