Veterinary Record Open最新文献

Background: Evaluation of cardiac function is an integral part of clinical examination of chelonians. However, information about electrocardiography (ECG) in turtles and tortoises is limited and fragmentary. Its application is limited due to the lack of ECG reference values. This study aimed to compare specific ECG parameters using non-invasive methods in the Asian box turtle Cuora flavomarginata (CF) and the Asian yellow pond turtle Mauremys mutica (MM).

Methods: We included 116 clinically healthy and conscious turtles. Two non-invasive methods, using adhesive patches or crocodile clips, for ECG were applied where possible. The ambient temperature was within the preferred optimum temperature zone of both species. We used specific digital ECG monitoring equipment to record the ECG data and analysed the data using specific software.

Results: The MM group showed better ECG quality and lower heart rate than the CF group. Comparing both methods, the adhesive patches method yielded higher ECG quality in the CF group, while the crocodile clips method yielded higher ECG quality in the MM group.

Conclusions: The study population was selected as presumed healthy turtles; the presence of systemic or cardiac disease could not be excluded completely due to limited investigation. Both ECG methods were clinically potentially useful for obtaining ECG parameters; the ECG quality was influenced by the method used.

Background: Ascaridia galli is a widespread problem in cage-free egg production. Sustainable control of nematode infections is a key component in this sector. This study investigates the effect of a treatment strategy against A. galli, aiming to propose a guideline for anthelmintic use on commercial poultry farms.

Methods: A total of eight flocks of laying hens (a-h) from five commercial poultry farms were included in this study. Faecal samples were collected on a biweekly basis starting at 7-13 weeks post-placement (WPP) and processed using the McMaster method to calculate ascarid egg shedding. Flocks were treated after the threshold of 200 eggs per gram of faeces (EPG) was reached.

Results: The highest initial faecal egg count was 6700 EPG at 11 WPP, whereas the lowest was 50 at 8 WPP. The longest delay to detect A. galli was 7 weeks. The lowest and the highest number of treatments were four and six, respectively. The shortest and longest periods between any two treatments were 5 and 22 weeks, respectively.

Conclusions: These results suggest that monitoring for A. galli should start at approximately 7 WPP and should be repeated every 8 weeks until hens are 50 weeks old. Treatment should be given only if moderate to high faecal egg counts are observed. Treatments after this point may be repeated every 8 weeks without eventually performing a faecal test. These findings provide practical support to veterinarians and egg producers dealing with ascarid worm infection in laying hens in their production stage.

Background and aims: In Europe, the antimicrobial use (AMU) for food-producing animals has decreased rapidly. However, studies indicate that a too strict policy, with too restrictive AMU, is potentially problematic for veterinarians because it threatens animal welfare and creates tensions between farmers and veterinarians. The AMU in Sweden is among the lowest in Europe, and regulation of AMU in farm animals is strict. The aim of our study was to explore how Swedish veterinarians describe the relations between (1) being restrictive with antibiotics due to the risk of AMR and (2) concerns for animal welfare and/or the veterinarian-client relationship.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 21 veterinarians, working with dairy cattle, were performed. The transcripts were analysed, and a number of dominant patterns which recurred in all, or most of, the interviews were identified.

Result: The interviewed veterinarians described AMR prevention and tackling the threat AMR poses towards public health, as central for their profession and as influencing their everyday practice and decisions on AMU. Importantly, veterinarians described accounting for AMR in everyday practice as fairly unproblematic, both in relation to animal welfare as well as in relation to farmers. The veterinarians generally perceived that they could treat animals with antibiotics when justified, and being restrictive with antibiotics was described as an expression of professional skill and not as challenging as animal welfare. Moreover, they stated that restrictive AMU seldom or never caused conflicts with farmers.

Conclusion: Strict AMU policy and restrictive AMU do not necessarily put veterinarians in a problematic position where they are caught between conflicting demands and risks.

Background: Effective clinical communication can aid veterinarians in building good client relationships, increase adherence to recommendations and, ultimately, improve patient health and welfare. However, available information on veterinary communication in the equine context is limited. The objective of this study was to describe the communication of veterinary students in the equine environment who had previous communication training. Additionally, we assessed the suitability of the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) for the analysis of audio-video recordings of equine wellness consultations.

Methods: Twenty-seven equine wellness consultations performed by second-year Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine students were recorded in rural Kentucky, United States of America. Recordings were submitted to a professional coder who applied the RIAS to the equine context by expanding or adjusting code definitions.

Results: A substantial amount of utterances (i.e. segments of speech) were allocated to core communication skills including building rapport (30%), facilitation and client activation (24%) and education and counselling (23%). There was a large variation in utterances used among consultations of the same veterinary student and students; they did not appear anxious or nervous.

Conclusions: Students made use of core communication skills, indicating that experiences from pre-clinical training could be transferred to equine practice. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that the RIAS could be considered for consecutive studies aiming to provide observational data on clinical communication in the equine context.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) in the horse is an economic and welfare issue and there are no current disease modifying drugs available. Stem cells have been suggested as a therapeutic intervention for OA, originally on the basis of their regenerative capacity. However, it is hypothesised that mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) exert their effects via paracrine factors including the production of extracellular vesicles that can themselves recapitulate the MSC effects in the joint.

Objectives: To isolate extracellular vesicles from bone marrow MSC and investigate their anti-inflammatory effects on chondrocytes.

Study design: An in vitro assessment of the effect of direct culturing extracellular vesicles on artificially inflamed chondrocytes.

Methods: Extracellular vesicles were isolated from bone marrow MSC using differential sequential ultracentrifugation. Vesicles were characterised using electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracing analysis and protein analysis. Vesicle internalisation was carried out via vesicles being pre-stained and co-cultured with equine chondrocytes before analysis using confocal microscopy. The effects of vesicles on artificially inflamed chondrocytes was examined using quantitative PCR.

Results: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to isolate and characterise extracellular vesicles from equine bone MSC. Vesicles were taken up by autologous chondrocytes and had anti-inflammatory effects on gene expression following chondrocyte exposure to tumour necrosis factor α and Interleukin 1β.

Main limitations: Only three independent biological repeats were performed and the work was done in vitro.

Conclusion: Extracellular vesicles can be isolated from equine bone marrow MSC; they may be taken up by chondrocytes and have an anti-inflammatory action.

Background: Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (AP) is the causative agent of porcine pleuropneumonia. Apx exotoxins are the most important virulence factors associated with the induction of lesions. ApxI is highly cytotoxic on a wide range of cells. Besides the induction of necrosis and apoptosis of ApxI on porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs), its role in pyroptosis, a caspase-1-dependent form of cell death, has not been reported. The aim of this study was to analyse if NLRP3 inflammasome participates in cell death induced by ApxI.

Methods: PAMs, the porcine alveolar macrophage cell line 3D4/21 and a porcine aortic endothelial cell line were used in this study. We used Z-VAD-FMK and Ac-YVAD-cmk to inhibit caspase-1. Glyburide and MCC950 were used to inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome. A lactate dehydrogenase release assay was used to measure the percentage of cell death. Caspase-1 expression was analysed by immunofluorescence. End-point RT-PCR was used to analyse the expression of NLRP3 mRNA.

Results: Rapid cell death in PAMs, 3D4/21 cells and the endothelial cell line were induced by ApxI. This cell death decreased by using caspase-1 and NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors and by blocking the K⁺ efflux. Expression of NLRP3 mRNA was induced by ApxI in alveolar macrophages while it was constitutive in the endothelial cell line. Detection of caspase-1 in alveolar macrophages was higher after ApxI treatment and it was blocked by MCC950 or heat inactivation.

Conclusions: To the best of the authors' knowledge, we have described for the first time in vitro induction of ApxI associated pyroptosis in alveolar macrophages and endothelial cells, a rapid cell death that depends on the activation of caspase-1 via the NLRP3 inflammasome.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1002/vro2.14.].

Background: Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a hereditary heterogeneous group of mechanobullous disorders caused by mutations in several structural skin proteins observed in both humans and animals. In this work, we report the incidence and the genetic trend of the junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB), a major type of EB, in the Italian German Shorthaired Pointer (GSPs) population in a 10 years span.

Methods: In this study, we monitored the genetic trend of JEB in the Italian population of the GSPs from 2009 to 2018 in 750 animals. The studied mutation was the insertion (4818+207 ins 6.5 kb) of repetitive satellite DNA within intron 35 of the LAMA3 gene.

Results: Allele frequencies showed a reduction of the mutated (C) allele during the years, with the only exception of 2017, when 13 dogs were diagnosed as carrier for the genetic pathology. A regression logistic analysis was performed, including sex, coat colour and their interaction. Our results showed that there was a statistically significant association with coat colour.

Conclusions: The simplicity and the low cost of the analysis for the detection of this pathology suggests that a deeper identification of carrier dogs will allow better breeding strategies and management, leading to a rapid JEB eradication.