Infections in horses encompass a range of diseases caused by various pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. These infections can affect different systems within the horse, such as the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and integumentary systems, leading to a variety of clinical signs depending on the pathogen and the severity of the infection. Common infectious diseases in horses include equine influenza, strangles, and equine herpesvirus. Diagnosis often involves clinical examination, laboratory testing, and sometimes imaging, to identify the causative agent and assess the extent of the disease. Treatment strategies may include antimicrobial therapy, supportive care, and preventive measures such as vaccination and biosecurity practices. This page aggregates peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases in equine populations.
Shipton WA.The equine phycomycotic agent known commonly as Hyphomyces destruens or occasionally as Pythium gracile, is described as a new species Pythium destruens. Separation is on the basis of morphological features, temperature growth profiles, esterase/lipase activity, and carbohydrate utilization ability. P. diclinum (synonymous with P. gracile sensu Middleton) showed minor differences in vesicle, oospore and oogonium size from P. destruens. P. destruens grew at 40 degrees C on corn meal agar and hydrolysed esters of lauric and oleic acids. These abilities were not displayed by P. diclinum, but this...
Mercer JG, Munn AE, Rees HH.Both free ecdysteroids and hydrolysable polar conjugated ecdysteroids were detected in protoscoleces of Echinococcus granulosus from the equine host, and in hydatid cyst fluid from the same source. Comparisons were made of hydatid cyst fluid from E. granulosus infections of three intermediate host species: horses, sheep and humans. Ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone were identified in both protoscoleces and hydatid cyst fluids by high-performance liquid chromatography monitoring fractions by radioimmunoassay, and by capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (selected ion monitoring). The fre...
Anderson RA, Gallaway WJ.The capillary tube precipitin test was used to determine the host utilization patterns of Culiseta inornata in southwestern Manitoba. Ruminant blood was identified in 83.3% and equine blood in 15.8% of 1,036 positively reacting blood-meals. Human, swine and avian blood accounted for 0.9% of these blood-meals and mixed blood-meals accounted for 1.5% of the total. Culiseta inornata preferentially fed on large mammals, and selection between cattle and horses reflected the relative abundance of these two hosts rather than a specific preference for either one.
Hall BG, Faunce W.The genes for utilization of cellobiose are normally cryptic in both laboratory strains and natural isolates of Escherichia coli. A survey of natural isolates of E. coli reveals that functional genes for cellobiose utilization, while rare, are present. The fraction of E. coli that utilized cellobiose ranged from less than 0.01% in human fecal samples to 7% in fecal samples obtained from horses. Samples obtained from sheep, cows, dogs, and pigs contained 0.1 to 0.5% cellobiose-positive E. coli. Neither the previously identified cel genes nor the bgl genes from E. coli K-12 were expressed during...
The Journal of heredityMay 1, 1987
Volume 78, Issue 3 171-177 doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a110351
Leone NC, Shupe JL, Gardner EJ, Millar EA, Olson AE, Phillips EC.Hereditary multiple exostosis (HME), a bone tumor first described by Virchow, has been studied over a period of 15 years on a comparative basis. The horse, an excellent biomedical model for this physically deforming multiple bone tumor in man, has been utilized in this study. The etiology, hereditary pattern, potential for malignancy and other aspects of this strange affliction need additional clarification. This in-depth study of 261 individuals from 144 families was compared with that of 55 horses bearing the HME trait, selectively bred and studied over the same period. Important information...
May SA, Wyn-Jones G.Contrast radiography is a valuable technique in the investigation of infected foci in the horse. Its simplest form, a metal probe, will demonstrate the direction and, in the case of a short tract, the extent of the lesion. However, liquid contrast agents often give more information by following the course of long, tortuous sinus tracts, accurately delineating the boundaries of lesions and identifying the presence of foreign bodies.
Dart AJ, Hutchins DR, Begg AP.A 12-year-old Thoroughbred mare, with a history of anorexia, dramatic weight loss, fluctuating pyrexia and intermittent diarrhoea after an episode of colic, was presented for examination with depression, emaciation and ataxia. Thoracic and abdominal paracenteses yielded copious quantities of inflammatory exudate. Palpation per rectum revealed an enlarged spleen. The primary alterations in haematology included a severe leucocytosis with a left shift, and a hyperproteinaemia characterised by hypoalbuminaemia and hypergammaglobulinaemia. Post-mortem examination revealed a low grade pleurisy and p...
Rosendal S, Lumsden JH, Viel L, Physick-Sheard PW.Neutrophils were isolated from the peripheral blood of adult equids (group 1) and were purified on a density gradient of polyvinylpyrrolidone-coated silica gel. A bactericidal assay was developed, using an equine skin isolate of Staphylococcus epidermidis as target bacterium in medium containing pooled fresh equine serum for opsonization. Significant (P less than 0.05) killing was observed after 60 or 120 minutes' incubation. Reduction in bactericidal function of blood neutrophils was not found after incubation with a virulent strain of Mycoplasma felis for 30 or 60 minutes. Similarly, the fun...
Strzemienski PJ, Dyer RM, Sertich PL, Garcia MC, Kenney RM.The oestrous cycles of 20 mixed-breed mares were synchronized with daily injections of 10 mg oestradiol-17 beta and 150 mg progesterone given i.m. for 10 days. On the 10th day, 10-15 mg prostaglandin F-2 alpha was administered i.m. to induce oestrus. Neutrophils were isolated from jugular blood on the 2nd or 3rd day of oestrus, Days 5 and 7 after ovulation or during early pregnancy (Days 18-34 of pregnancy). Neutrophils were challenged with Staphylococcus aureus and their bactericidal activity examined after 30 and 120 min of incubation for a reduction of colony forming units. Bactericidal act...
DiPietro JA, Lock TF, Todd KS, Reuter VE.Twenty ponies less than 18 months of age and infected with Parascaris equorum were treated with either 0.2 mg of ivermectin/kg of body weight (n = 10) or a placebo (n = 10; controls). Five control and 5 ivermectin-treated ponies were euthanatized 14 and 35 days after treatment, respectively. At necropsy, the small intestinal contents, lungs, and liver were examined for larvae and/or adult P equorum. Significantly (P less than 0.02) higher mean total numbers of P equorum were found in the small intestinal contents of the controls on day 14 (51) and on day 35 (21) than in the ivermectin-treated ...
Snyder JR, Pascoe JR, Hirsh DC.Positive cultures were obtained from 60 equine orthopedic cases during a 12 year period (1974-1985). These cases consisted of 34 long or cuboidal bone fractures, 13 arthrotomy/arthroscopy procedures for removal or internal fixation of a fracture, 7 proximal splint bone fractures, and 6 facial or mandibular fractures. Excluding the 13 arthrotomies, only 10 (21%) of the 47 were open fractures. Multiple organisms were isolated from 36 cases (20 long or cuboidal bone fractures, 7 splint bone fractures, 5 mandibular fractures, and 4 intra-articular fractures). Of the 142 isolates, 35 (24%) were mem...
Gelberg HB, McEntee K.Interstitial cell tumors from nine stallions were described. In all but one horse the tumors were found in undescended testes. Five animals had bilateral tumors. Two animals showed increased aggression. Tumors contained two cell types. The first type were large distinctly bordered eosinophilic cells interpreted to be hyperplastic and hypertrophic interstitial cells. They blended with pleomorphic often spindloid neoplastic cells which had fibrillar, vacuolated cytoplasm and indistinct cell borders. This latter cell population was arranged in nodules or broad sheets as endocrine-like packets or ...
Gray WL, Baumann RP, Robertson AT, Caughman GB, O'Callaghan DJ, Staczek J.The regulation of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) transcription was examined in infected rabbit kidney cells using metabolic inhibitors. In order to map EHV-1 immediate early, early, and late transcripts, viral RNA was 32P-labeled in vivo and hybridized to EHV-1 DNA restriction fragments immobilized on nitrocellulose filters. Immediate early viral RNA was mapped to one region of the viral genome within the inverted repeat DNA sequences (map units 0.78-0.83 and 0.95-1.0). Northern blot hybridization analysis using a 32P-labeled cloned DNA probe from this region identified a single immediate e...
Browning GF, Studdert MJ.The genomes of 51 isolates of slowly cytopathic equine herpesviruses were examined by digestion with restriction endonucleases. Forty-seven of the isolates showed considerable fragment pattern heterogeneity although common fragments were evident, especially when any two isolates were compared or when they were digested with SalI. Fifteen of the 47 viruses, selected for their diverse fragment patterns, showed a high degree of homology in Southern blot hybridization. In contrast, four viruses, representing three epidemiologically distinct isolations, shared few, if any, comigrating fragments wit...
Gorman PW, Collins DN.Presented is the third known case of a group C streptococcal arthritis, this case documented in a healthy 42-year-old horse trainer, apparently transmitted by a mare. After a delayed diagnosis, the patient responded favorably to surgical drainage and parenteral penicillin G, but required a manipulation of his knee under general anesthesia. Although rare, group C streptococcal arthritis can occur in hosts with no apparent predisposing factors. Frequent exposure to farm animals may increase the risk.
Brumbaugh GW.The goal of antimicrobial drug use is quite specific. Consideration of many microbe-related, host-related, and drug-related factors is necessary for appropriate selection and use of antimicrobial drugs in equine patients. The concepts and data presented in this article demonstrate that fact. At the risk of oversimplification, "The bug denotes the drug, and the horse directs the course."
Payne SL, Salinovich O, Nauman SM, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.Comparisons of peptide and oligonucleotide maps of glycoproteins and RNA from nine isolates of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) that were generated during parallel infections of two Shetland ponies revealed that each isolate was structurally unique. Each EIAV isolate contained a unique subset of variant peptides, oligonucleotides, or both, indicating that structural variation in EIAV is a random and noncumulative process and that a large spectrum of possible EIAV variants can be generated in infected animals.
Cabañes FJ, Abarca L, Bragulat MR, Calvo MA.The ability of 17 strains of Epidermophyton to perforate hair in vitro using the Ajello & Georg's test procedure and a modification of Lu's method has been studied. Following the Ajello & Georg's test procedure only E. stockdaleae perforated hair. Sporadically some strains of E. floccosum perforated horse hair. We noted as well unusual perforations originated from inside to outside of the hair. By the other technique, all strains, excepting E. floccosum var. nigricans in child hair, perforated hair. E. floccosum showed these perforations later than E. stockdaleae.
Berrocal A, van den Ingh TS.The pathological findings in three cases of equine phycomycosis in Costa Rica are described. Two cutaneous (Pythium sp) and one nasal lesion (Conidiobolus) were observed.
Suzuki Y, Takai S, Kubota H, Hasegawa N, Ito S, Yabuuchi Y, Sasaki Y, van Duijkeren E, Kakuda T.Rhodococcus equiis the causative agent of pyogenic pneumonia in foals, and a virulence-associated protein A (VapA) encoded on the pVAPA virulence plasmid is important for its pathogenicity. In this study, we analyzed the virulence of R. equi strain U19, originally isolated in the Netherlands in 1997 and the genetic characteristics of the pVAPA_U19 plasmid. U19 expressed VapA that was regulated by temperature and pH and underwent significant intracellular proliferation in macrophages. The restriction fragment length polymorphism of pVAPA_U19 digested with EcoRI was similar to that of pREAT701 (...
Amory H, Cesarini C, De Maré L, Loublier C, Moula N, Detilleux J, Saulmont M, Garigliany MM, Lecoq L.The objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical significance of fecal quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) results when taking the cycle threshold values (Ct) into account. The study included 120 qPCR-positive fecal samples obtained from 88 hospitalized horses over a 2-year period. The mean Ct of the qPCR test was evaluated in regard to (1) clinical outcome and (2) systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) status (no SIRS, moderate SIRS, or severe SIRS) of the sampled horses. An ROC analysis was performed to establish the optimal cut-off Ct valu...
Wilkins PA.Rapid evaluation and intervention is a requirement and a characteristic of patient management in neonatal intensive care units, and this applies for equine neonates also. Appropriate interventions are based on solid knowledge of age, maturity, and species-specific differences in reference ranges. Point-of-care (POC) testing devices speedup decision making regarding treatments and interventions. However, there are potential limitations of these devices when applied to age groups and species beyond those they were specifically developed for. This article discusses the age-specific differences in...
Hasegawa M, Amano A, Muraoka H, Kobayashi I, Kimoto M, Kato M, Fujioka T, Nasu M.We conducted a study for the growth of and selectivity for the desired microorganisms using a newly developed selective culture medium for Helicobacter pylori, Columbia horse blood agar HP (CHBHP), at three different Japanese clinical laboratories, Hokkaido, Kanto and Kyusyu. When standard strains and clinical isolates of H. pylori were examined, the recovery of the organism on the CHBHP media was comparable to that of conventional selective and nonselective media. However, colonies were obviously larger on the CHBHP media. These media yielded the highest H. pylori positive rate for clinical s...
Rosypal AC, Lindsay DS, Duncan R, Ahmed SA, Zajac AM, Dubey JP.Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) is a neurologic syndrome in horses from the Americas and is usually caused by infection with the apicomplexan parasite, Sarcocystis neurona. Little is known about the role of immunobiological mediators to this parasite. Nitric oxide (NO) is important in resistance to many intracellular parasites. We, therefore, investigated the role of inducible and endothelial NO in resistance to clinical disease caused by S. neurona in mice. Groups of interferon-gamma gene knockout (IFN-gamma-KO) mice, inducible nitric oxide synthase gene knockout (iNOS-KO) mice, endo...
Thomas RJ.An antigen for the gel diffusion test for equine infectious anaemia (EIA) was prepared from the spleen of a horse experimentally infected with the CQ strain of the virus. The antigen produced a single, distinct line of precipitation when tested against a range of known positive serums, and did not react with pre-inoculation and known negative serums. Extracts prepared from uninfected spleens displayed no reaction when similarly tested. Serum from 34 of 451 Queensland horses contained detectable levels of antibody to EIA virus. The positive serums were from horses in widely separated areas of t...
O'Rourke BA, Dennis JA, Healy PJ.Improvements to restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-based genotyping assays currently used for detection of mutations responsible for bovine ferrochelatase and myophosphorylase deficiencies, and equine hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP) are described. Reports of sporadic inhibition of restriction enzyme activity suggest a critical factor in RFLP-based genotyping assays should be assurance that restriction enzymes perform to specification with every sample. The RFLP genotyping assays that use either a mismatched recognition sequence in one or both of the oligonucleotides, or inc...
Diaz-Méndez A, Viel L, Shewen P, Nagy E.Equine rhinitis A virus (ERAV) is an ubiquitous virus, routinely identified in equine respiratory infections; however, its role in disease and genetic features are not well defined due to a lack of genomic characterization of the recovered isolates. Therefore, we sequenced the full-length genome of a Canadian ERAV (ERAV/ON/05) and compared it with other ERAV sequences currently available in GenBank. The ERAV/ON/05 genome is 7,839 nucleotides (nts) in length with a variable 5'UTR and a more conserved 3'UTR. When ERAV/ON/05 was compared to other reported ERAV isolates, an insertion of 13 nt in t...
Geurden T, De Keersmaecker F, De Keersmaecker S, Claerebout E, Leathwick DM, Nielsen MK, Sauermann CW.In the present study, an anthelmintic treatment regimen with reduced treatment frequency was evaluated in horses on two study sites in Belgium during three consecutive summer pasture seasons. Historically, the horses on both study sites were treated up to 6 times a year with ivermectin (IVM) or up to 4 times a year with moxidectin (MOX), and previous efficacy evaluations indicated a reduced egg reappearance period in some of the treated horses for both IVM (28 days) and MOX (42 days). In the present study, all horses were treated with IVM or MOX in the spring and in autumn. Faecal egg counts (...
Ochi A, Sekiguchi M, Tsujimura K, Kinoshita T, Ueno T, Katayama Y.Equine multinodular pulmonary fibrosis (EMPF) is a recently described form of interstitial pneumonia associated with equine herpesvirus type 5 (EHV-5). This disease has been reported in North and South America, Europe and Oceania but not, to our knowledge, in horses in Japan. We diagnosed EMPF in two Thoroughbred horses in Japan on the basis of gross and histopathological findings. In both cases, significant gross lesions, restricted to the lungs, consisted of numerous firm and coalescing nodules widely distributed throughout the lung. The nodules were <3 cm in diameter and pale white to t...
Onasanya AE, El-Hage C, Diaz-Méndez A, Vaz PK, Legione AR, Browning GF, Devlin JM, Hartley CA.Equid gammaherpesvirus 2 (EHV2) is a gammaherpesvirus with a widespread distribution in horse populations globally. Although its pathogenic significance can be unclear in most cases of infection, EHV2 infection can cause upper respiratory tract disease in foals. Co-infection of different strains of EHV2 in an individual horse is common. Small regions of the EHV2 genome have shown considerable genetic heterogeneity. This could suggest genomic recombination between different strains of EHV2, similar to the extensive recombination networks that have been demonstrated for some alphaherpesviruses. ...
Fodor L, Szenci O, Peters M, Varga J, Szemerédi G, Wyszoczky F.A total of seven Bacteroides ureolyticus strains were isolated from the cervix and the clitoral fossa of mares with vaginal discharge. No other bacteria capable of causing metritis or vaginitis were isolated from the samples. The isolated strains resembled Taylorella equigenitalis. Both species are catalase, oxidase and alkaline phosphatase positive, but, in addition to these characteristics, B. ureolyticus strains produced urease and they could not tolerate 10% O2. They also failed to be agglutinated in a hyperimmune serum raised against T. equigenitalis; however, B. ureolyticus and T. equige...
Beasley AM, Coleman GT, Kotze AC.The use of macrocyclic lactone drugs for control of equine cyathostomins is threatened by increasing levels of resistance. Detection of changes in drug sensitivity is important for effective and sustainable management of cyathostomins, however, at present such detection relies on the use of the faecal egg count reduction test, which is known to be an insensitive method. The present study therefore aimed to examine the use of a 96-well plate larval migration inhibition test for detection of resistance to macrocyclic lactone drugs in cyathostomins. We optimised conditions for migration of larvae...
Mar Htun Z, Laikul A, Pathomsakulwong W, Yurayart C, Lohnoo T, Yingyong W, Kumsang Y, Payattikul P, Sae-Chew P, Rujirawat T, Jaturapaktrarak C....Pythium insidiosum causes a life-threatening infection termed pythiosis in humans and other animals. The organism has been identified in tropical and subtropical environments worldwide. Since 1985, human pythiosis has been increasingly reported from Thailand. Seroprevalence studies estimated that 32,000 Thai people had been exposed to the pathogen. In 2018, the first animal pythiosis case in Thailand was diagnosed in a horse. Here, we investigated the seroprevalence of anti-P. insidiosum antibodies in the Thai equine population. Methods: We surveyed serum anti-P. insidiosum antibodies in 15...
Cocco R, Rizzo M, Carta C, Arfuso F, Piccione G, Luridiana S, Crovace A, Passino ES, Sechi S.Among infection diseases transmitted by arthropods, the equine vector-borne diseases transmitted by ticks represent an emerging problem worldwide due to their morbidity and mortality and, in some cases, to their zoonotic relevance. Understanding the host immune/inflammatory response to the pathogens is crucial to develop effective methods of diagnosis, control and treatment. This study aimed to evaluate red blood cells (RBC), hematocrit (Hct), hemoglobin concentration (Hb), mean cell volume (MCV), mean cell hemoglobin content (MCH), mean cell hemoglobin (MCHC), platelets (PLT), white blood cel...
French DD, Klei TR, Taylor HW, Chapman MR, Wright FR.The efficacy of ivermectin in oral paste formulation at a dosage of 200 micrograms/kg of body weight was tested against naturally acquired larval and adult stages of Parascaris equorum, in a controlled study. Twenty infected pony foals 18 to 27 weeks of age were randomly allocated to 2 groups of 10 each and were placed in dry lots. Foals in 1 group were given ivermectin on day 0. Necropsies and parasite recoveries from small intestines and lung tissues were performed on 5 foals in each group at 2 weeks after treatment (WAT) and on the remaining foals at 5 WAT. Ivermectin was 100% effective aga...
Blikslager AT, Wilson DA, Taylor DS, MacFadden KE, Fischer JR, Fales WH.An 11-year-old, 430-kg fox-trotter stallion was referred for evaluation of colic. A right-sided inguinal hernia was diagnosed. At exploratory laparotomy, the ileum was found to be herniated through the right inguinal canal. Compromised small intestine was resected, jejunocecal anastomosis was performed, and the horse was castrated. Three days after surgery, the stallion would not bear weight on the left hind limb. The musculature of the left thigh region became swollen. Aspiration of the left thigh region yielded serosanguineous fluid from which Salmonella typhimurium was isolated. Ultrasonogr...
Emmerich IU.In 2012, two newly developed active pharmaceutical ingredients for horses and food producing animals were released on the German market for veterinary drug products. Those are the parenterally applicable first generation cephalosporin Cefalonium (Cepravin®) and the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Suxibuzone (Danilon®). Furthermore, one established veterinary active pharmaceutical ingredient is applicable to additional species: The anticoccidial Amprolium (Eimeryl®) has again been authorized for chicken and turkeys. Additionally, two veterinary drugs with a new formulation as well as thr...
van Maanen C, Vreeswijk J, Moonen P, Brinkhof J, de Boer-Luijtze E, Terpstra C.Ten monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were produced against equine herpes virus type 1 (EHV1). Two appeared type-specific, while the other eight were directed against epitopes common to both EHV1 and EHV4. Two MAbs directed against the glycoprotein gp2 recognized linear epitopes, as demonstrated by Western blotting. With pools of type-specific MAbs, 282 field isolates were typed in an immunoperoxidase monolayer assay (IPMA). From a total of 254 fetal or neonatal isolates, 244 (96%) were typed as EHV1, whereas 14 out of 15 (93%) respiratory tract isolates were typed as EHV4. Surprisingly, 3 out of 1...
Amerault TE, Frerichs WM, Stiller D.An agglutinating antigen and a rapid card test (CT) for equine piroplasmosis was developed. The antigen for the CT was prepared from lyophilized Babesia caballi complement-fixation (CF) antigen. Serum and plasma samples for testing were obtained from known B caballi-infected horses and clinically normal horses maintained at the laboratory. Serum samples also were obtained from horses outside the continental United States, in areas where piroplasmosis is endemic. Comparative CT and CF tests were done on all samples. The CT correctly identified 85% of 192 plasma samples from known infected and n...
Scott P, Witonsky S, Robertson J, Daft B.Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), caused by Sarcocystis neurona infection in the central nervous system (CNS), affects up to 1% of all horses during their lifetimes. Neither the protective immune response nor the immunopathology associated with the disease is well understood. To begin to clarify the pathogenesis of the disease, immunohistochemical staining for B and T lymphocytes was performed on spinal cord sections obtained from 17 horses, all of which were all positive for S. neurona based on immunohistochemical staining. Fifteen of the 17 horses included in the study were killed du...
Lucken R, Daas A, Behr-Gross ME.The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) has organised an international collaborative study, divided in two phases, aimed at producing and establishing a suitable reference serum for serological potency testing of clostridial vaccines for batch consistency demonstration. In phase 1 a series of pools produced from sera provided by each manufacturer and raised against the broadest range of antigens possible were blended to obtain TN titres which were representative of the range normally elicited by the vaccines under test. Detailed statistical analysis of the data was not pos...
Chang Y, Maylin GM, Matsumoto G, Neades SM, Catlin DH.Methods have been developed to screen for and confirm darbepoetin alfa, recombinant human EPO, and methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin β (PEG-epoetin β) in horse plasma. All three methods screen samples with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and confirm by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). This report focuses on PEG-epoetin β. The ELISA assay was able to detect PEG-epoetin β at 0.02 ng/mL in 50 µL of horse plasma. Many samples had high background levels of immunoreactivity; however, introducing polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG 6000) into the samples before...
Young JB.An epizootic of anthrax in Eastern Falls County, Texas, killed at least 238 animals during a 6-week period ending July 31, 1974. Infection appeared to be caused by the ingestion of contaminated soil and grass in the drought-stricken central Texas area. The participation of the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Texas National Guard, and other state agencies was of great assistance to the Texas Animal Health Commission in handling the epizootic and panic stricken public. Use of the unencapsulated Sterne strain spore vaccine was credited with preventing many livestock losses in the area. Conta...
Reimann HA.It is conceivable that a change from the virulent, non-phagocytable S form of Pneumococcus to the avirulent phagocytable R form may take place in pneumococcus disease, but the experiments here reported do not settle the question whether or not this is an important factor in determining the outcome in natural infection. It has been shown experimentally that the degradation from the S form to the R form actually does take place in cultures of Pneumococcus growing in agar subcutaneously embedded in guinea pigs, in agar enclosed in vials subcutaneously embedded in rabbits, and spontaneously in the...
Bauerfeind R, Barth S, Weiss R, Baljer G.Strains of Salmonella isolated from animals in Germany (n = 878) were analysed for the presence of the spvD gene ("Salmonella plasmid virulence gene D") by DNA-DNA hybridization. The spvD gene was only detected in strains of serovars Typhimurium (93.3%), Enteritidis (97.1%), and Dublin (100%) as well as in two rough strains of Salmonella enterica. Salmonella isolates from mammals carried the gene more frequently (cattle 94.0%, horses 92.6%, pigs 73.7%) than those from birds (33.3%) or reptiles (4.5%). Due to its high prevalence in epidemiologically relevant salmonellae, the virulence factor sp...
Matthews JB, Johnson DR, Lazari O, Craig R, Matthews KR.The Cyathostominae are a complex group of nematodes and are the primary parasitic pathogens of horses. Little is known of their basic biology. As part of an investigation into mechanisms involved in reactivation of mucosal larval stages, we identified a gene encoding a predicted LIM domain-containing protein (Cy-LIM-1). LIM domains are cysteine- and histidine-rich motifs that are thought to direct protein-protein interactions. Proteins that contain these domains have a wide range of functions including gene regulation, cell fate determination and cytoskeleton organization. The Cy-lim-1 mRNA wa...
HARDY FM, ARBITER D.Hardy, Frank M. (Fort Detrick, Frederick, Md.), and David Arbiter. Lipid inclusions in L cells associated with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus infection. J. Bacteriol. 89:1101-1103. 1965.-Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus has been shown to induce changes of lipid components within the L cell. Lipid inclusions in the form of dark granular bodies were observed in the L cell after aqueous osmium tetroxide fixation and Sudan black staining. Microscopic examination of cells as early as 8 hr after infection with VEE virus showed an increase in the concentration of these inclu...
Potocnik E, Drozdzewska K, Schwarz B.We describe the case of a four-year-old Quarter Horse mare that presented with fever, respiratory infection with productive cough, disorientation, and bilateral anterior uveitis with discharge that had been previously treated with trimethoprim-sulfadiazine (TMPS). Acinetobacter johnsonii was cultured from an endoscopic tracheal wash. Treatment was initiated with cefquinome, systemic flunixin-meglumine, local ocular atropine, and corticosteroids. On subsequent days, the mare exhibited bilateral edematous, painful swelling of the face, primarily affecting the eyelids and lips. There were neither...
Fukushi N, Badr Y, Fukushi H.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) UL11 is a 74-amino-acid (aa) protein encoded by ORF51. UL11 is modified by acylation including myristoylation and palmitoylation. Myristoylation of EHV-1 UL11 is assumed to occur on the N-terminal glycine, while palmitoylation is assumed to occur on the seventh and ninth cysteines. ORF51, which encodes the first 24 aa, overlaps ORF50 encoding UL12. We previously demonstrated that UL11 was essential for EHV-1 replication in cultured cells and that UL11 was localized at the Golgi apparatus where herpesviruses obtain their final envelope. It is unclear whether th...
