Keratomycosis in five dogs

Five cases of canine keratomycosis were diagnosed and treated at a private Veterinary Ophthalmology Practice in Melbourne, Australia. Clinical presentations varied between dogs. Predisposing factors were identified in 4 of 5 cases. Diagnostic modalities utilized were corneal cytology and fungal culture. Corneal cytology confirmed the presence of fungal organisms in all five cases. Aspergillus, Scedosporium, and Candida were cultured from three cases, respectively. Specific antifungal treatment included 1% voriconazole solution or 1% itraconazole ointment. Keratectomy and conjunctival grafting surgery was performed in two patients. Resolution of infection and preservation of vision were achieved in 4 of 5 patients.     

Anatomical and physiological basis for the allometric scaling of cisplatin clearance in dogs

Cisplatin is a platinum‐containing cytotoxic drug indicated for the treatment of solid tumors in veterinary and human patients. Several of the algorithms used to standardize the doses of cytotoxic drugs utilize allometry, or the nonproportional relationships between anatomical and physiological variables, but the underlying basis for these relationships is poorly understood. The objective of this proof of concept study was to determine whether allometric equations explain the relationships between body weight, kidney weight, renal physiology, and clearance of a model, renally cleared anticancer agent in dogs. Postmortem body, kidney, and heart weights were collected from 364 dogs (127 juveniles and 237 adults, including 51 dogs ≥ 8 years of age). Renal physiological and cisplatin pharmacokinetic studies were conducted in ten intact male dogs including two juvenile and eight adult dogs (4–55 kg). Glomerular filtration rate (GFR), effective renal plasma flow, effective renal blood flow, renal cisplatin clearance, and total cisplatin clearance were allometrically related to body weight with powers of 0.75, 0.59, 0.61, 0.71, and 0.70, respectively. The similar values of these diverse mass exponents suggest a common underlying basis for the allometry of kidney size, renal physiology, and renal drug handling.     

Nanoemulsion formulation of florfenicol improves bioavailability in pigs

Nanotechnology applications in medicine have seen a tremendous growth in the past decade and are being employed to enhance the stability and bioavailability of lipophilic substances, such as florfenicol. This study aimed to examine the pharmacokinetic properties of the formulated oil‐in‐water florfenicol‐loaded nanoemulsion (FF‐NE). FF‐NE and florfenicol control (Nuflor^®) were administered to the pigs at a dose of 20 mg/kg. Nanoemulsion formulation of florfenicol was highly influenced in vivo plasma profile. The in vivo absorption study in pigs indicated that C_max (14.54 μg/mL) was significantly higher in FF‐NE, 3.42 times higher than the marketed formulation. In comparison with the control group, the relative bioavailability of formulated nanoemulsion was up to 134.5%. Assessment of bioequivalence using log‐transformed data showed that the 90% confidence intervals (90% CI) of C_max and AUC_0–∞ were 2.48–4.60 and 1.21–1.72, respectively.     

Isolation,identification and antibiotic resistance of Campylobacter strains isolated from domestic and free-living pigeons

1. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in domestic and free-living pigeons and to evaluate the antibiotic resistance profiles.

2. The material consisted of cloacal swabs obtained from 108 homing pigeons and fresh faeces from 72 wild birds from Lublin and its vicinity. The identification of strains isolated on differential/selective media for Campylobacter spp. was carried out by MALDI-TOF and PCR. The susceptibility to antibiotics was evaluated by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in Mueller-Hinton broth.

3. A total of 35 strains of Campylobacter spp. were isolated; 27 were identified as Campylobacter jejuni and 8 as Campylobacter coli. Over half of the isolates were resistant to erythromycin and streptomycin, 40% of strains were resistant to tetracycline and ampicillin and 37% isolates were resistant to amoxicillin. Resistance to two or more antibiotics was observed in all strains tested.

4. The results indicate that both domestic and free-living pigeons are reservoirs for bacteria of the genus Campylobacter, which are characterised by varied and growing resistance to commonly used antibiotics.     

Survival of 4 dogs with persistent atrial standstill treated by pacemaker implantation

Pacemakers were implanted in 4 client-owned female dogs which had persistent atrial standstill. Three dogs were alive after 14 to 39 months and 1 dog was euthanized after 10.5 years. This report demonstrates that some dogs with persistent atrial standstill can survive for extended time periods.     

Characterisation of caecum and crop microbiota of Indian indigenous chicken targeting multiple hypervariable regions within 16S rRNA gene

1. A comparative analysis of caecum and crop microbiota of chick, grower and adult stages of Indian indigenous chickens was conducted to investigate the role of the microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract, which play an important role in host performance, health and immunity.

2. High-throughput Illumina sequencing was performed for V3, V4 and V4-V6 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene. M5RNA and M5NR databases under MG-RAST were used for metagenomic datasets annotation.

3. In the crop, Firmicutes (~78%) and Proteobacteria (~16%) were the predominant phyla whereas in the caecum, Firmicutes (~50%), Bacteroidetes (~29%) and Actinobacteria (~10%) were predominant. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index suggested that sample richness and diversity increased as the chicken aged.

4. For the first time, the presence of Lactobacillus species such as L. frumenti, L. antri, L. mucosae in the chicken crop along with Kineococcus radiotolerans, Desulfohalobium retbaense and L. jensenii in the caecum are reported. Many of these bacterial species have been found to be involved in immune response modulation and disease prevention in pigs and humans. The gut microbiome of the indigenous chicken was enriched with microbes having probiotic potential which might be essential for their adaptability.

     

HSP90 gene expression induced by aspirin is associated with damage remission in a chicken myocardial cell culture exposed to heat stress

1. To understand the potential protection of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) induced by aspirin against heat stress damage in chicken myocardial cells, enzyme activities related to stress damage, cytopathological changes, the expression and distribution of HSP90, and HSP90 mRNA levels in the myocardial cells exposed to heat stress (42°C) for different durations with or without aspirin administration (1 mg/ml, 2 h prior) in vitro were investigated.

2. Significant increase of enzyme levels in the supernatant of heat-stressed myocardial cells and cellular lesions characterised by acute degeneration, karyopyknosis and karyorrhexis were observed, compared to non-treated cells. However, the lesions of cells treated with aspirin were milder, characterised by earlier recovery of enzyme levels to the control levels and no obvious heat stress-related cellular necrosis.

3. Stronger positive signals in the cytoplasm and longer retention of HSP90 signal in nuclei were observed in aspirin-treated myocardial cells than those of only heat-stressed cells. HSP90 level in the aspirin-treated myocardial cells was 11.1-fold higher than that in non-treated cells, and remained at a high level at the early stage of heat stress, whereas it was just 4.1-fold higher in only heat-stressed cells and returned rapidly to a low level.

4. Overexpression of HSP90 mRNA in aspirin-treated cells was observed throughout the experiment, whereas HSP90 mRNA decreased significantly only in heat-stressed cells.

5. The early higher HSP90 expression induced by aspirin during heat stress was accompanied by decreased heat stress damage, suggesting that aspirin might play an important role in preventing myocardial cells from heat stress damage in vitro.

     

Influence of thermal stimulation during the late phase of incubation on hatching results and post-hatch broiler performance under commercial conditions

1. Two experiments, which differed in breeder age, strain and season, were conducted to study the influence of low-intensity, short-duration thermal stimuli during the late phase of incubation on hatchability and performance. The first experiment conducted in April–June used eggs from Cobb × Ross broiler breeders at 35–41 weeks of age and the second experiment performed in February–April used eggs from Hubbard × Cobb broiler breeders at 49–53 weeks of age.

2. Eggs in the test group had the same physical environment as eggs in the control group except that incubation temperature was increased by 1?C for 2 h/d above the control group from 18 to 20 d of incubation (DI).

3. The results demonstrated that thermal stimulation of 1?C for 2 h/d above control incubation temperature during 18–21DI did not have any adverse effects on hatch and post-hatch performance of broilers.

4. In both experiments, treatment did not significantly alter the secondary sex ratio in hatched chickens, but hatch residue showed that the proportion of unhatched male embryos was significantly lower in the test groups than in the control groups.

5. In the first experiment, thermal stimulation improved feed conversion by 1.82% compared with the control.