subsp. (MAP), the etiological agent of Johne's disease (JD) in ruminants, establishes a prolonged and often lifelong enteric infection. The implementation of control measures for bovine JD has faced obstacles due to the considerable expenses involved in disease surveillance and hindered by unreliable and inadequate diagnostic tests, emphasizing the need for an effective vaccine that can stimulate mucosal immunity in the gastrointestinal tract.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNonhuman primates (NHPs) are important to study the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disease and evaluate therapies targeting the central nervous system (CNS). Understanding the age-associated incidence of natural CNS pathology in a given NHP species is critical to assess the safety of potential treatments for neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease (AD). We describe background and age-related neuropathology in the St.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe source and significance of pulmonary silicate crystals in animals and people are poorly understood. To estimate the prevalence and characterize the pulmonary crystalline material in animals from St. Kitts, tissue samples from dogs, horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, mongooses, and monkeys were examined by light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (SEM/EDXA), and x-ray diffraction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIschemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is the leading cause of acute renal failure and is a significant contributor to delayed graft function. Animal models are the only available resources that mimic the complexities of the IRI-associated damage encountered in vivo. This paper describes an effective mouse model of unilateral renal IRI that delivers highly reproducible data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuropathology is a challenging subject for most medical students. Delivering a gamified learning tool on this topic may motivate students and increase knowledge in the discipline. We report the development of such a tool in iBook format for the systemic pathology course delivered at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) is an economically important pathogen of swine, there is a lack of information on PCV2 from the Lesser Antilles. In this retrospective study, we report high rates of detection of PCV2 DNA in porcine faecal (41.3%, 26/63) and kidney (32.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report here high rates of detection (50.8%, 31/61 pigs) of Torque teno sus virus (TTSuV) in kidneys of slaughter-age, apparently healthy pigs on St. Kitts island, Lesser Antilles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives Platynosomum species are cat-specific parasitic trematodes that parasitize the biliary ducts and gall bladder. Due to the common connection to the major duodenal papilla of the pancreas and common bile ducts in addition to the periductal proximity of the pancreas, it is possible that platynosomosis could cause pancreatitis. The objective of this study was to determine whether platynosomosis, a commonly diagnosed parasitic disease in cats on St Kitts, has any association with pancreatic disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain tumours in cattle are uncommon and the spontaneous development of primary brain tumours of different histological types is rare in both man and animals. In man, multiple concurrent primary tumours of different types are occasionally described. We report the rare simultaneous occurrence of two different primary brain tumours, gliosarcoma and choroid plexus carcinoma, diagnosed by microscopical and immunofluorescence evaluation in an 8-year-old cow with a 2-month history of neurological disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStreptococcus agalactiae, the aetiological agent of streptococcosis in fish, is an important pathogen of cultured and wild fish worldwide. To gain a better understanding of the pathogenesis of streptococcosis in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), and to identify the experimental route of infection that most closely mimics natural disease, fingerlings were challenged with S. agalactiae utilizing different delivery methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Examination of bile could be useful to diagnose Platynosomum spp.-induced cholangitis in cats. Obtaining bile via percutaneous ultrasound-guided cholecystocentesis (PUC) is possible but raises safety concerns in cats with severe cholecystitis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfter an outbreak of Yersinia enterocolitica at a NHP research facility, we performed a multispecies investigation of the prevalence of Yersinia spp. in various mammals that resided or foraged on the grounds of the facility, to better understand the epizootiology of yersiniosis. Blood samples and fecal and rectal swabs were obtained from 105 captive African green monkeys (AGM), 12 feral cats, 2 dogs, 20 mice, 12 rats, and 3 mongooses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFive calves were inoculated orally at 2 weeks of age with a dose of 5 × 10(9) colony-forming units of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) on 2 consecutive days. Two calves developed clinical Johne's disease at 12 and 16 months of age after being consistently positive for MAP on fecal culture and antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), starting 2 to 3 weeks and 4 to 5 months after inoculation, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp. Leptospirosis is maintained in an environment due to chronic kidney infection of a wide variety of domestic, peridomestic and wild reservoir mammals. In this study the role of pigs in maintenance of leptospires on the Caribbean island of St.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn unusual case of osteomyelitis caused by Nocardia cyriacigeorgica infection and resulting in mandibular osteomyelitis and cellulitis (lumpy jaw) is described in a young cat. A 1-cm hard nodular mass was an incidental finding in the right mandible of a 14-month-old cat during routine physical examination. The lesion was fast growing, reaching up to 6 cm in its largest dimension over a 5-week period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFYersinia enterocolitica is a zoonotic gram-negative pathogen that causes mesenteric lymphadenitis, terminal ileitis, acute gastroenteritis, and septicemia in domestic animals and primates. In 2012, 46 captive African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) died during an outbreak of acutely fatal enteric disease over a period of 1 mo on the island of St Kitts. The affected monkeys presented with a history of mucohemorrhagic diarrhea, marked dehydration, and depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe longstanding assumption that calves of more than 6 months of age are more resistant to Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection has recently been challenged. In order to elucidate this, a challenge experiment was performed to evaluate age- and dose-dependent susceptibility to MAP infection in dairy calves. Fifty-six calves from MAP-negative dams were randomly allocated to 10 MAP challenge groups (5 animals per group) and a negative control group (6 calves).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEdwardsiella ictaluri, a Gram-negative enteric bacterium, is the known etiological agent of enteric septicemia of catfish. In the last few years, different strains have been implicated as the causative agent of mortality events in cultured fish, including Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus L. Due to the emergent nature of edwardsiellosis in non-ictalurid fish, little is known about the dynamics of E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Repeated administration of low-dose silver nitrate (SN) has been shown to be effective in creating pleurodesis. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a SN-eluting pleural catheter for pleurodesis.
Methods: Catheters with a chitosan-SN-hyaluronic acid hydrogel coating designed to release SN over 14 days, or placebo uncoated catheters, were inserted in rabbit and lamb pleurodesis models.
Four cases of Columbid herpesvirus-1 infection in great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) were identified in Calgary, Alberta. Necropsy findings included severe multifocal hepatic and splenic necrosis, pharyngeal ulceration and necrosis, and gastrointestinal necrosis. Occasional eosinophilic intranuclear viral inclusion bodies were associated with the foci of necrosis and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing confirmed a diagnosis of herpesvirus-induced disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study describes the development, implementation, and psychometric assessment of the multiple mini-interview (MMI) for the inaugural class of veterinary medicine applicants at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM). The MMI is a series of approximately five to 12 10-minute interviews that consist of situational events. Applicants are given a scenario and asked to work through an issue or behavioral-type questions that are meant to assess one attribute (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA model of para-aminophenol (PAP) nephrotoxicity in Sprague-Dawley rats was utilized to characterize potential indicators of toxicity in the kidney and in biofluids, and to chronicle the progression of acute renal injury. Rats were administered PAP at a low or high dose and examined terminally at 6, 24 and 48 hours (4 animals/group with matching controls). Acute tubular necrosis was observed in the medullary rays (low and high doses) and the outer stripe of outer medulla (high dose only) as early as 6 hours postdosing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF