Diagnostic peritoneal lavage for identification of blastomycosis in a dog with peritoneal involvement

A 6-year-old castrated male Dalmatian was evaluated because of hematemesis. The dog had lived its entire life in South Dakota and Wyoming and had never traveled outside of these states. Results of laboratory testing were compatible with iatrogenic acute renal failure and gastrointestinal tract ulceration secondary to previous nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug and corticosteroid administration. Differential diagnoses for clinical signs and laboratory abnormalities that existed prior to these treatments included multisystemic infectious or inflammatory disease and neoplasia. Four-quadrant abdominocentesis did not yield any fluid, but because intra-abdominal disease was still suspected, diagnostic peritoneal lavage was performed. Fluid that was obtained was markedly cellular, and there were numerous extracellular structures with a round to oval shape; a 1-microm-thick, clear-staining capsule; a basophilic interior; and broad-based budding. Organisms were consistent with Blastomyces spp, and fungal culture yielded Blastomyces dermatitidis. Treatment with liposomal amphotericin B and itraconazole was recommended but could not be initiated because of the client's financial constraints. At necropsy, disseminated blastomycosis involving the stomach, small intestines, urinary bladder, omentum, mesentery of the small intestine, and abdominal wall musculature was seen. To our knowledge, peritoneal involvement has not been reported in dogs with blastomycosis, and gastrointestinal tract involvement has only rarely been reported. Findings in this dog suggest that diagnostic peritoneal lavage may be a useful technique in determining the cause of infectious peritonitis when the amount of abdominal fluid is below the limit of detection for abdominocentesis.     

Preliminary observations on expression of transforming growth factors beta1 and beta3 in equine full-thickness skin wounds healing normally or with exuberant granulation tissue

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 and -beta3 expression differs between equine limb wounds healing normally and those healing with experimentally induced exuberant granulation tissue (EGT). STUDY DESIGN: Six wounds were created on the lateral aspect of both metacarpi of each horse; one forelimb was untreated, and the other was bandaged to stimulate the development of EGT. Sequential wound biopsies allowed comparison of growth factor expression between the two types of wound. ANIMALS: Four horses (2 to 4 years of age; 350 to 420 kg). METHODS: Wounds were assessed grossly, histologically, and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for TGF-beta1 and -beta3 expression at 12 and 24 hours and 2, 5, 10, and 14 days postoperatively. RESULTS: Bandaged wounds developed EGT. In all wounds, TGF-beta1 peaked early and remained elevated at 14 days. Peak TGF-beta1 concentration was higher in wounds with EGT, but not significantly so. Expression of TGF-beta3 differed from TGF-beta1, with peak TGF-beta3 concentrations being delayed. Concentrations of TGF-beta3 were higher in wounds healing normally, but this difference was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: During both normal and exuberant wound repair, the expression of TGF-beta1 occurred earlier than TGF-beta3 expression. Wounds healing with EGT tended to have higher concentrations of fibrogenic TGF-beta1 and lower concentrations of antifibrotic TGF-beta3 than wounds healing normally, although these differences were not statistically significant. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study suggests that the production of EGT in bandaged wounds may be related to increased expression of fibrogenic TGF-beta1 and decreased expression of antifibrotic TGF-beta3. Further investigation of the roles of TGF-beta1 and -beta3 may be important in understanding the molecular control of EGT in horses.     

Fluorouracil as a treatment for corneal papilloma in a Malayan tapir

A 26-year-old, wild caught, male Malayan tapir at the Miami Metrozoo with bilateral corneal papillomas was serially immobilized and given subconjunctival injections of fluorouracil. Over the course of 17 weeks five bilateral injections of 25 mg fluorouracil were given. This treatment caused regression of the corneal lesions as evidenced by decreased lesion diameter, decreased corneal vascularity, increased corneal clarity, and improved visual function. No adverse drug effects were observed.     

Antibody response of five bird species after vaccination with a killed West Nile virus vaccine.

West Nile virus has been associated with numerous bird mortalities in the United States since 1999. Five avian species at three zoological parks were selected to assess the antibody response to vaccination for West Nile virus: black-footed penguins (Spheniscus demersus), little blue penguins (Eudyptula minor), American flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber), Chilean flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis), and Attwater's prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri). All birds were vaccinated intramuscularly at least twice with a commercially available inactivated whole virus vaccine (Innovator). Significant differences in antibody titer over time were detected for black-footed penguins and both flamingo species.     

Annual, career or single race records for breeding value estimation in race horses

The racing careers of 2, 3, 4, and 5-year-old Thoroughbreds and French trotters born in France between 1995 and 1999 were analysed. The horses were evaluated on a set of traits, with particular attention to annual or career earnings and number of starts.

As expected, the distributions of earnings corrected for year, age and sex are very skew and thus inappropriate for breeding value estimations. However, Log transformation results in near normal distributions more suitable for this purpose.

Another problem of annual or career earnings required a more complex approach. As most horses did not win any money in France (67% of the trotters and 41% of the Thoroughbreds), it is difficult to correctly evaluate these horses. On the other hand, a linear adjustment of the Log of earnings by the Log of the number of starts (exponential adjustment of the earning index) leads to regression coefficients close to 1. It justified the use of the Log of earnings per start and explained its higher heritability in literature. A quadratic adjustment of the Log of earnings by the Log of the number of starts (sigmoid adjustment of the earning index) improves the adjustment for the Thoroughbred only and should be implemented for these horses.

The probability of a horse to be placed according to the number of starts was also studied. It is shown that the observed percentage of non-placed horses p_s according to the number of starts, s, is in all cases inferior to the expected percentage (p_s < p₁^s). Therefore, races of the same horse cannot be considered as independent events. The percentage of horses placed and the mean earnings for each age can be combined in order to estimate the economical weights for each age class. Economical weights for the French trotter were 0.00, 0.21, 0.40, and 0.39 for 2, 3, 4, and 5-year olds respectively. They were 0.11, 0.45, 0.26 and 0.18 respectively for Thoroughbreds of the same age categories. The current tendency to move from annual or career criteria towards criteria at the race level is discussed. However, the question on how to evaluate the important proportion of horses born that never appeared in a race still remains open and should focus future research.     

In vivo characterization of inflammatory biomarkers in swine and the impact of flunixin meglumine administration

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are a family of chemicals that function to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation, and they are commonly used in people and animals for this purpose. Currently there are no NSAIDs approved for the management of inflammation in swine due to a lack of validated animal models and suitable biomarkers to assess efficacy. A previous in vitro study examining biomarkers of inflammation identified fourteen genes that were significantly altered in response to Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation. In the present study, five of those fourteen genes were tested in vivo to determine if the same effects observed in vitro were also observed in vivo. Plasma levels of prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)), an essential mediator of fever and inflammation, were also determined. Two groups of swine were stimulated with LPS with the second group also treated with flunixin meglumine. Blood was collected at 0, 1, 3, 6, 8, 24, and 48h post LPS-stimulation. The RNA was extracted from the blood and quantitative real-time-PCR (qRT-PCR) was utilized to determine the expression patterns of CD1, CD4, serum amyloid A2 (SAA2), Caspase 1, and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1). The LPS-stimulated animals demonstrated a statistically significant alteration in expression of SAA2 and CD1 at 3h post-stimulation. Flunixin meglumine treated animals' demonstrated reduced expression of CD1 in comparison to the LPS-stimulated swine at 24 and 48h post LPS-stimulation. Flunixin meglumine treated animals exhibited reduced expression of SAA2 at 48h post-stimulation compared to LPS-stimulated swine. Swine treated with LPS demonstrated statistically significant increases in plasma PGE(2) at 1h post-stimulation. Swine treated with flunixin meglumine had no increase in plasma PGE(2) levels at any time. These results demonstrate that PGE(2) production, along with two out of five genes (SAA2 and CD1) have the potential to serve as early biomarkers of inflammation as well as indicators of NSAID efficacy.