Detection of asinine gammaherpesviruses in association with pulmonary fibrosis in free-ranging donkeys

A mortality event among recently captured feral donkeys (Equus asinus) occurred in south-central Utah in 2016. The deaths were sporadic, and clinical signs were indicative of respiratory disease, likely associated with an infectious etiology. Ten of 13 donkeys autopsied had moderate-to-severe interstitial fibrosing pneumonia, and one had pyogranulomatous pneumonia. Consensus PCRs directed toward the DNA polymerase and DNA packaging terminase subunit 1 for herpesviruses were performed followed by sequencing of the PCR amplicons and phylogenetic analysis. Asinine herpesvirus 4 (AsHV4) and 5 (AsHV5) were consistently identified in lung tissues of affected donkeys. No other herpesviruses were identified, and herpesviral DNA was not detected in lung tissues of 2 donkeys without evidence of respiratory disease. The detection of asinine gammaherpesviruses may have been associated with the lesions described. AsHV4 and AsHV5 have been reported in previous studies as novel gammaherpesviruses based on sequences obtained from donkeys with interstitial pneumonia and marked syncytial cell formation. Our findings suggest that the association of asinine gammaherpesviruses with respiratory conditions in equids deserves further attention.     

Tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes in canine melanocytic tumours: An investigation on the prognostic role of CD3+ and CD20+ lymphocytic populations

The study of the immune response in several types of tumours has been rapidly increasing in recent years with the dual aim of understanding the interactions between neoplastic and immune cells and their importance in cancer pathogenesis and progression, as well as identifying targets for cancer immunotherapy. Despite being considered one of the most immunogenic tumour types, melanoma can progress in the presence of abundant lymphocytic infiltration, therefore suggesting that the immune response is not able to efficiently control tumour growth. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the density, distribution and grade of tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in 97 canine melanocytic tumours is associated with histologic indicators of malignancy and can be considered a prognostic factor in the dog. As a further step in the characterization of the immune response in melanocytic tumours, an immunohistochemical investigation was performed to evaluate the two main populations of TILs, T‐lymphocytes (CD3⁺) and B‐lymphocytes (CD20⁺). The results of our study show that TILs are present in a large proportion of canine melanocytic tumours, especially in oral melanomas, and that the infiltrate is usually mild. The quantity of CD20⁺ TILs was significantly associated with some histologic prognostic factors, such as the mitotic count, the cellular pleomorphism and the percentage of pigmented cells. Remarkably, a high infiltration of CD20⁺ TILs was associated with tumour‐related death, presence of metastasis/recurrence, shorter overall and disease‐free survival, increased hazard of death and of developing recurrence/metastasis, hence representing a potential new negative prognostic factor in canine melanocytic tumours.     

Fifty Years on: Long‐term Patterns of Land Sensitivity to Desertification in Italy

The Mediterranean region has been regarded as a critical hotspot for desertification due to the impact of soil degradation, the land‐use changes and the climate variations. Few large‐scale studies have been devoted to analyse trends in land sensitivity to desertification in the northern Mediterranean basin. The present paper contributes to this deserving issue by quantifying the level of land sensitivity to desertification in Italy at seven points between 1960 and 2010 at a fine spatial scale. The approach used followed the Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme that assesses changes in four key themes (climate, soil, vegetation and land management) related to land degradation processes. Italian land was classified into four levels of sensitivity to desertification (non‐affected, potentially affected, fragile and critical) according to the Environmentally Sensitive Area framework. Interestingly, although land surface area classified as ‘fragile’ and ‘critical’ grew homogeneously in Italy between 1960 and 1990, the increase observed in the most recent time period was spatially clustered and contributed to reverse the polarisation in ‘structurally vulnerable’ and ‘non‐affected’ regions observed in Italy. The paper discussed these trends in the light of socioeconomic changes that occurred in Italy after World War II. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.