Evaluating abdominal oedema during experimental sepsis using an isotope technique.

Purpose: Abdominal oedema is common in sepsis. A technique for the study of such oedema may guide in the fluid regime of these patients.

Procedures: We modified a double-isotope technique to evaluate abdominal organ oedema and fluid extravasation in 24 healthy or endotoxin-exposed ('septic') piglets.

The occurrence of Chlamydia spp. in pigs with and without clinical disease.

Background: Within the genera Chlamydia, the development of refined diagnostic techniques has allowed the identification of four species that are capable of infecting pigs. The epidemiology, clinical, and zoonotic impacts of these species are however largely unknown. The study aimed to investigate the presence of Chlamydia spp.

Orthopoxvirus DNA in Eurasian lynx, Sweden.

Cowpox virus, which has been used to protect humans against smallpox but may cause severe disease in immunocompromised persons, has reemerged in humans, domestic cats, and other animal species in Europe. Orthopoxvirus (OPV) DNA was detected in tissues (lung, kidney, spleen) in 24 (9%) of 263 free-ranging Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) from Sweden. Thymidine kinase gene amplicon sequences (339 bp) from 21 lynx were all identical to those from cowpox virus isolated from a person in Norway and phylogenetically closer to monkeypox virus than to vaccinia virus and isolates from 2 persons with cowpox virus in Sweden.

Mycotic proventriculitis in gray partridges (Perdix perdix) on two game bird farms.

Proventriculitis and chronic respiratory disease were diagnosed in two flocks of gray partridges (Perdix perdix) on unrelated Swedish game bird farms. Affected birds showed loss of condition, respiratory signs, and flock mortality rates of 50 and 98%, respectively. The proventricular lesions were associated closely with fungal organisms that were microscopically indistinguishable from the ascomycetous yeast Macrorhabdus ornithogaster (former provisional name "megabacterium").

Serological survey of Toxoplasma gondii infection in free-ranging Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) from Sweden.

To investigate the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in free-ranging Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Sweden, serosanguinous fluids and feces were collected from 207 carcasses of lynx killed or found dead from 1996 to 1998. Sera were tested for antibodies against T. gondii by the direct agglutination test, and 156 (75.

Diseases and mortality in free-ranging brown bear (Ursus arctos), gray wolf (Canis lupus), and wolverine (Gulo gulo) in Sweden.

Ninety-eight brown bears (Ursus arctos), 20 gray wolves (Canis lupus), and 27 wolverines (Gulo gulo), all free-ranging, were submitted to the National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, during 1987-2001 for investigation of diseases and causes of mortality. The most common cause of natural death in brown bears was infanticide. Infanticide also was observed in wolverines but not in wolves.

Epizootiologic investigations of selected infectious disease agents in free-ranging Eurasian lynx from Sweden.

Serum samples from 106 Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) from across Sweden, found dead or shot by hunters in 1993-99, were investigated for presence of antibodies to feline parvovirus (FPV), feline coronavirus, feline calicivirus, feline herpesvirus, feline immunodeficiency virus, Francisella tularensis, and Anaplasma phagocytophila, and for feline leukemia virus antigen. In addition, tissue samples from 22 lynx submitted in 1999 were analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect nucleic acids specific for viral agents and A. phagocytophila.

Investigations into shaking mink syndrome: an encephalomyelitis of unknown cause in farmed mink (Mustela vison) kits in Scandinavia.

An apparently novel neurological disease clinically characterized by shaking, tremors, seizures, staggering gait, and ataxia was first observed in farmed mink kits in Denmark in 2000 and subsequently in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland in 2001, and again in Denmark in 2002. Lymphoplasmacytic encephalomyelitis was found in the affected kits. The lesions were most severe in the brainstem and cerebellum and consisted of neuronal degeneration and necrosis, neuronophagia, focal and diffuse gliosis, perivascular cuffs formed by lymphocytes, plasma cells and macrophages, and segmental loss of Purkinje cells.