Molecular identification of Mycoplasma cynos from laboratory beagle dogs with respiratory disease

In this study, we examined a colony of 20 beagle dogs in a laboratory animal facility. Mycoplasma was detected by consensus PCR assay in 1 dog with respiratory and constitutional symptoms. None of the other dogs were affected. The dog was euthanized and necropsied. In postmortem examinations, gray or plum-colored gross lesions were found on the lung, most commonly in the apical and cardiac lobes. Some lesions showed clear demarcation and consolidation. Microscopic examination showed peribronchiolar lymphoid hyperplasia and interstitial thickening, lesions pathognomonic for mycoplasma pneumonia. To identify canine Mycoplasma species, we used species-specific PCR reactions for M. arginini, M. canis, M. cynos, M. edwardii, M. felis, M. gateae, M. maculosum, M. molare, M. opalescens, M. spumans, Mycoplasma sp. HRC 689, and M. collis. As the result, we identified Mycoplasma cynos by amplification of DNA extracted from lung tissue of the laboratory beagle dog with respiratory disease.     

Serum hemolytic activity in dogs infected with Babesia gibsoni

The hemolytic activity in serum of Babesia gibsoni-infected dogs was examined. When the activity was assayed in a reaction system consisting of similar concentrations of the serum and canine red blood cells to those in blood, significant hemolysis was observed. The activity of the serum of B. gibsoni-infected dogs, either naturally or experimentally, was always higher than that of uninfected animals. Moreover, in the experimental infection with B. gibsoni, the change in serum hemolytic activity was parallel to those of anemia and parasitemia, whereas it was inversely parallel to that of the hematocrit value. The present study revealed the presence of a hemolytic factor(s) in the serum of B. gibsoni-infected dogs, suggesting that the progressive anemia was due to hemolysis by the factor(s).     

Spontaneous corneal opacities in laboratory mice

Corneal opacities were observed in numerous strains and stocks of laboratory mice (Mus musculus) from different microbiological environments. The opacities were characterized as acute and chronic inflammatory lesions of the corneal epithelium and anterior corneal stroma, including corneal ulcers and erosions, acute keratitis, stromal neovascularization and mineralization of the basement membrane zone. Some strains and stocks of mice from barrier-reared colonies had a high incidence of corneal opacities [DBA/2 (29.1%), C3H (16.2%), CF1 (16.2%) and BALB/c (10.0%)] while others had a lower incidence [CD-1 (4.3%) and C57BL/6 (4.1%)]. Axenic and gnotobiotic mice had a very low incidence of corneal opacities (1.6%). An experimental study demonstrated that twice weekly cage cleaning would reduce the incidence of corneal opacities to a very low level. A bacterial product, such as ammonia, is proposed as a significant factor in the pathogenesis of spontaneous corneal opacities in laboratory mice.     

Spontaneous cor pulmonale in laboratory beagles

Right heart failure associated with postmortem evidence of pulmonary hypertension (cor pulmonale) was observed in nearly 1% of the young beagles of a large research colony. During the past 18 years, 176 dogs with cor pulmonale were observed. Most cases occurred between September and April of each year. Nearly equal numbers of males and females were involved, and some siblings were affected. Ninety-six percent of known affected dogs died, and 85% of the deaths occurred by 5 weeks of age. Clinically, most dogs were stunted and exhibited ascites, subcutaneous edema, hypothermia, dyspnea, cyanosis, and systolic murmur. Radiography revealed cardiomegaly, and electrocardiography revealed right axis deviation and an enlarged right atrium. Postmortem evidence of cor pulmonale included subcutaneous edema, ascites, hydrothorax, mediastinal and mesenteric edema, splenomegaly, centrolobular hepatic congestion and necrosis, right ventricular hypertrophy, interstitial pneumonia, and medial hypertrophy of pulmonary arteries and arterioles. The specific cause of the disease was not determined.     

Haplotype reconstruction in large pedigrees with untyped individuals through IBD inference

Haplotypes, as they specify the linkage patterns between dispersed genetic variations, provide important information for understanding the genetics of human traits. However, haplotypes are not directly obtainable from current genotyping platforms, which pushes extensive investigations of computational methods to recover such information. Two major computational challenges arising in current family-based disease studies are large family sizes and many ungenotyped family members. Traditional haplotyping methods can neither handle large families nor families with missing members. In this article, we propose a method that addresses these issues by integrating multiple novel techniques. The method consists of three major components: pairwise identical-by-descent (IBD) inference, global IBD reconstruction, and haplotype restoring. By reconstructing the global IBD of a family from pairwise IBD and then restoring the haplotypes based on the inferred IBD, this method can scale to large pedigrees, and more importantly it can handle families with missing members. Compared with existing approaches, this method demonstrates much higher power to recover haplotype information, especially in families with many untyped individuals. Availability: http://sites.google.com/site/xinlishomepage/pedibd.     

State of cellular immunity and phagocytes in guinea pigs infected with Mycoplasma pneumoniae

The work presents the results of the study of experimental Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in guinea-pigs. A considerable increase in the engulfment of mycoplasmas and blood leukocytes was found to occur on days 14-28 after the infection. The correlation between the degree of the engulfment of mycoplasmas by macrophages and the activity of lymphocytes in the reaction of blast-cell transformation with phytohemagglutinin and Mycoplasma antigen was observed. The peculiarities of the course of infection in sensitized animals were revealed. Virulent Mycoplasma pneumoniae strains were found to have a toxic effect on the lymphocytes and macrophages of guinea-pigs. This effect was neutralized by specific antiserum. The importance of these facts for the pathogenesis of Mycoplasma infection is discussed.     

Spontaneous flight activity of Aedes trivittatus infected with Dirofilaria immitis

Spontaneous flight activity of Dirofilaria immitis-infected Aedes trivittatus was evaluated by using an acoustic activity system. The activity of mosquitoes infected with low numbers of filarial larvae (1-4) was similar to that of uninfected mosquitoes. However, mosquitoes infected with more than 4 larvae became more active than uninfected mosquitoes 8 days after infection. Peak flight activity (circadian) occurred at the same time in both infected and uninfected mosquitoes, but infected mosquitoes were much more active during normal periods of quiescence. Flight activity of mosquitoes infected with more than 4 larvae was suppressed on days 10 and 14 postinfection, corresponding to times of greatest disruption of the Malpighian tubules by the developing larvae.     

Plasma metabolomics in calves with acute bronchopneumonia

Background

Bovine respiratory disease is one of the main health issues in dairy calves. Inflammatory lung diseases are highly complex with respect to pathogenesis and relationships between inflammation, clinical disease and response to treatment. Metabolomics may offer the potential to identify biomarkers that define calf bronchopneumonia in terms of combined clinical, physiological and patho-biological abnormalities. While metabolomic studies are often encountered in childhood pneumonia, there is no knowledge related to the same approach to calf pneumonia.

Objective

The aim of this first study was to reveal the new potential biomarkers for acute calf bronchopneumonia by single proton (¹H) Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based quantitative metabolomics.

Methods

Fifty dairy calves with acute bronchopneumonia presented for treatment to the teaching hospital, and ten healthy dairy calves belonging the teaching farm were used. Laboratory (hematological: complete blood count and blood gas analysis, and biochemical analysis related to health profile) were performed. NMR spectra of the all samples (50 diseased + 10 healthy water soluble extracts, 50 diseased + 10 healthy lipid extracts) were acquired using a standard Nuclear Overhauser Effect Spectroscopy pulse sequence.

Results

NMR based metabolomics analysis showed that calves suffering from bronchopneumonia and healthy calves have two different and distinguishable metabolic fingerprints using both water soluble and lipid extracts. Alterations in metabolites, increases in 2-methyl glutarate, phenylalanine, phosphatidylcholine, and decreases in ethanol, dimethylsulfone, propionate, acetate, allantoin, free cholesterol, cholesterol (–C18), were meaningful for pathogenic mechanisms of calf bronchopneumonia.

Conclusion

The NMR based metabolomics may contribute to better understanding bronchopneumonia in calves.