Effect of N‐Acetylcysteine Supplementation on Intracellular Glutathione,Urine Isoprostanes,Clinical Score,and Survival in Hospitalized Ill Dogs

Background

Antioxidant depletion and lipid peroxidation have been correlated with disease severity and associated with poor outcomes.

Hypothesis/Objectives

Supplementing dogs with N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) during the first 48 hours of hospitalization will increase cysteine, normalize glutathione concentrations, and decrease the degree of lipid peroxidation associated with illness.

Animals

Sixty systemically ill hospitalized client‐owned dogs and 14 healthy control dogs.

Methods

Randomized investigator‐blinded, placebo‐controlled prospective study. Dogs were randomized to treatment with NAC (n = 30) versus placebo (n = 30). Antioxidants, urine 8‐isoprostane/creatinine (IP/Cr), and clinical score were determined before and after treatment with NAC. Glutathione, cysteine, and vitamin E concentrations were quantified using high‐performance liquid chromatography. Atomic absorption spectroscopy and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays were used to quantify selenium and isoprostane concentrations, respectively.

Results

Ill dogs had significantly lower vitamin E concentrations (27 versus 55 μg/mL; P = .0005) as well as elevated IP/Cr ratios (872 versus 399 pg/mg; P = .0007) versus healthy dogs. NAC supplementation significantly increased plasma cysteine (8.67 versus 15.1 μM; P < .0001) while maintaining glutathione concentrations. Dogs in the placebo group experienced a statistically significant decrease in glutathione concentrations (1.49 versus 1.44 mM; P = .0463). Illness severity and survival were unchanged after short duration NAC supplementation.

Conclusions

Ill dogs experience systemic oxidative stress. Supplementation with NAC during the first 48 hours of hospitalization stabilized erythrocyte glutathione concentrations. The clinical impact of this supplementation and glutathione concentration stabilization was undetermined.     

Hyperkeratosis and other complications in animals. Chlorinated hydrocarbons as possible causative agents.

Extract

This experiment was designed primarily to compare the efficacy of two heat-concentrated synthetic medium tuberculins, one prepared from strains of Mycobacterium bovis and the other from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, when used in tuberculin testing of cattle.     

Observations on calf scours in New Zealand

Extract

Scouring syndromes constitute a major disease group in dairy calves in New Zealand.     

Mange in pigs: A survey

Extract

Mange in pigs caused by Sarcoptes scabiei var. suis is reported to be common in New Zealand, but, to the writer's knowledge, no investigation has been made of the number of infested farms in any area.     

Reduced Myxobolus cerebralis Actinospore Production in a Colorado Reservoir May Be Linked to Changes in Tubifex tubifex Population Structure

Abstract

Elucidating the dynamics of a parasitic infection requiring two hosts in a natural ecosystem can be a daunting task. Myxobolus cerebralis (Mc), the myxozoan parasite that causes whirling disease in some salmonids, was detected in the Colorado River upstream of Windy Gap Reservoir (WGR) in 1988. Subsequently, whirling disease was implicated in the decline of wild Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in the river when WGR was identified as a point source of Mc triactinomyxons (TAMs). Between 1997 and 2004, numerous investigations began to elucidate the etiology of Mc in WGR. During this period, Mc TAM production in WGR declined more than 90%. Explanations for the decline have included differences in stream discharge between years, changes in the thermal regime of the lake, severe drought, changes in the fish population structure in WGR, and reductions in the prevalence and severity of Mc infection in salmonids in the Colorado and Fraser rivers upstream of WGR. All of these have been discredited as explanations for the reduced TAM production. In 2005, a new study was conducted to replicate the studies completed in 1998. In this paper, the results of a new real-time polymerase chain reaction assay utilized to quantify the mitochondrial 16S rDNA specific to each of four lineages of Tubifex tubifex in pooled samples of 50 oligochaetes are presented. These results suggest that compared with 1998, the densities of aquatic oligochaetes and T. tubifex have increased, TAM production has been greatly reduced, and the decline is congruent with the dominance of lineages I, V, and VI of T. tubifex—three lineages that are refractory or highly resistant to Mc infection—in the oligochaete population. While it is possible that the resistant lineages function as biofilters that deactivate Mc myxospores, the reason for the decline in TAM production in WGR remains an enigma.

Received February 15, 2012; accepted March 17, 2013     

DIURETIC RENAL SCINTIGRAPHY IN NORMAL DOGS

Diuretic renal scintigraphy is commonly used in human medicine to differentiate obstructive from nonobstructive pyelectasia. In order to determine normal parameters, 99mTc-DTPA renal scintigraphy was performed twice in 20 healthy adult Mongrel dogs. Each dog was injected with either 3.0 mg/kg furosemide or an equivalent volume of saline 4.5 min following injection of the radiopharmaceutical. The following parameters were evaluated: (1) global and individual glomerular filtration rate (GFR); (2) time of peak (TOP) of the time-activity curve (TAC); (3) shape of the TAC; (4) individual kidney excretion half-time (T1/2); (5) proportion of maximum activity measured at end of study (8 min); (6) time of onset; and (7) duration of the effect of the diuretic. Most TAC in the diuretic renography group showed a steep drop in the curve following administration of the diuretic compared with a gradual slope in the saline control group. There was a statistically significant difference in T1/2 between the control renograms (median 10.25 min, range 4.41-18.07 min) and the diuretic renograms (median 4.16 min, range 3.62-5.90 min). There was a statistically significant difference in percentage maximum activity between the control renograms (median 65.25%, range 48.27-93.68%) and the diuretic renograms (median 48.54%, range 35.64-58.76%). Median time of onset of the diuretic effect was 1.10 min (0.20-2.40 min), and median duration was 0.83 min (0.30-2.35 min).     

Postulation of leaf-rust resistance genes in Czech and Slovak barley cultivars and breeding lines

Leaf‐rust resistance (Rph) genes in 61 Czech and Slovak barley cultivars and 32 breeding lines from registration trials of the Czech Republic were postulated based on their reaction to 12 isolates of Puccinia hordei with different combinations of virulence genes. Five known Rph genes (Rph2, Rph3, Rph4, Rph7, and Rph12) and one unknown Rph gene were postulated to be present in this germplasm. To corroborate this result, the pedigree of the barley accessions was analysed. Gene Rph2, as well as Rph4, originated from old European cultivars. The donor of Rph3, which has been mainly used by Czech and Slovak breeders, is ‘Ribari’ (‘Baladi 16’). Rph12 originates from barley cultivars developed in the former East Germany. Rph7 in the registered cultivar ‘Heris’ originates from ‘Forrajera’. A combination of two genes was found in 10 cultivars. Nine heterogeneous cultivars were identified; they were composed of one component with an identified Rph gene and a second component without any resistance gene. No gene for leaf rust resistance was found in 17 of the accessions tested. This study demonstrates the utility of using selected pathotypes of P. hordei for postulating Rph genes in barley.     

Surgical treatment of a mural teat abscess in a cow

A 6-year-old multiparous Holstein cow was admitted for evaluation of progressive milk flow obstruction of one quarter of the udder. Physical examination findings suggested the presence of a mural teat abscess. Ultrasonography substantiated the physical examination findings and delineated the extent of the lesion. Surgical excision of the abscess en bloc yielded satisfactory functional and cosmetic results.     

Investigation of problems associated with intramuscular breast injection of oil-adjuvanted killed vaccines in chickens

Case submissions and a field investigation indicated that oil-adjuvanted killed vaccines may produce long-lived residual lesions in chickens. The lesions typically are yellow opaque cysts along the fascial planes separating the superficial and deep pectoral muscles. Microscopic evaluation shows that most lesions are cysts with thin fibrous capsules, sometimes associated with lymphocytic aggregates and, more rarely, a granulomatous reaction.