Veterinary Quarterly最新文献

Background: There is an increased interest in Non-Conventional Therapies (NCTs), often referred to as complementary and alternative medicines, in veterinary clinical practice.Aim: To map the bibliometric outputs of NCTs in veterinary medicine, and identify which are most prevalent, and the extent to which their publishing has increased.Methods: Text mining algorithms were applied to detect 17 NCTs-related terms (acupuncture, ayurveda/ayurvedic, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional medicine, chiropractic, electroacupuncture, essential oil, plant extract, ethnopharmacology, herbal medicine, homeopathy, low-level laser therapy, medicinal plant, natural product, osteopathy, phytotherapy, and massage) in the title, abstract or keywords of all retrievable literature until 2020 under the PubMed MeSH term 'veterinary' (N = 377 556). Point prevalence, incidence by decade and cumulative incidence were calculated.Results: Bibliometric trend analysis revealed an overall increase in NCTs-related terms over the last 20 years, with a substantial growth of studies mentioning plant extracts, essential oils and medicinal plants. Traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine and natural product have also increased in the same period, although their numbers remain low. Conversely, reference to acupuncture has decreased in the last decade when compared with the previous decade, whereas references to homeopathy, electroacupuncture, osteopathy and chiropractic remained scarce, suggesting that their use in veterinary clinical practice may not be based on published evidence.Conclusion: Further reviews to explore this issue are warranted, differentiating secondary from primary literature, and assessing relevance and methodological quality of individual studies, following the principles of evidence-based veterinary medicine.

Brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) is a chronic, lifelong, debilitating, primarily obstructive airway disease which adversely affects the quality of life of many popular dog breeds. Respiratory restriction in bulldog breeds, pugs and Boston terriers frequently co-exist with pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, many brachycephalic dogs that appear clinically normal are, in fact suffering from chronic hypoxia and its systemic consequences. Concurrent gastroesophageal reflux-associated conditions, sleep disorders and systemic hypertension further impact the welfare of affected dogs. Acceptance of BOAS and associated clinical signs as being 'normal for the breed' is common amongst owners. While surgical correction of the upper airway is the mainstay of treatment, the provision of subsequent, frequently lifelong medical management is equally important for the maintenance of an acceptable quality of life, at least for some affected patients. Here we review the current knowledge concerning brachycephaly, combine it with shared clinical experience in the management of this debilitating condition, and discuss ethical considerations and the responsibility of veterinarians to contribute public education and to support appropriate breed standards for animals under our care.

Lameness or leg weakness is the main cause of poor poultry welfare and serious economic losses in meat-type poultry production worldwide. Disorders related to the legs are often associated with multifactorial aetiology which makes diagnosis and proper treatment difficult. Among the infectious agents, bacteria of genus Staphylococcus are one of the most common causes of bone infections in poultry and are some of the oldest bacterial infections described in poultry. Staphylococci readily infect bones and joints and are associated with bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO), spondylitis, arthritis, tendinitis, tenosynovitis, osteomyelitis, turkey osteomyelitis complex (TOC), bumblefoot, dyschondroplasia with osteomyelitis and amyloid arthropathy. Overall, 61 staphylococcal species have been described so far, and 56% of them (34/61) have been isolated from clinical cases in poultry. Although Staphylococcus aureus is the principal cause of poultry staphylococcosis, other Staphylococcus species, such as S. agnetis, S. cohnii, S. epidermidis, S. hyicus, S. simulans, have also been isolated from skeletal lesions. Antimicrobial treatment of staphylococcosis is usually ineffective due to the location and type of lesion, as well as the possible occurrence of multidrug-resistant strains. Increasing demand for antibiotic-free farming has contributed to the use of alternatives to antibiotics. Other prevention methods, such as better management strategies, early feed restriction or use of slow growing broilers should be implemented to avoid rapid growth rate, which is associated with locomotor problems. This review aims to summarise and address current knowledge on skeletal disorders associated with Staphylococcus spp. infection in poultry.

Osteoarthritis is a progressive degenerative disease affecting joints. It is associated with structural and functional changes that cause lameness and pain in dogs. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are considered an ideal therapeutic candidate for treating inflammatory musculoskeletal conditions due to their paracrine and immunomodulatory characteristics. They are delivered intravenously or as intra-articular injections for treating canine osteoarthritis. However, ex vivo studies have confirmed that the osteoarthritic synovial fluid is cytotoxic to cultured MSCs. Therefore, intra-articular transplantation of viable MSCs should be considered counterproductive since it minimizes cellular viability. Similarly, the intravenous administration of MSCs limits the therapeutic effects on the organ of interest since most of the administered cells get trapped in the lungs. Therefore, cell-free therapeutic strategies such as conditioned media and extracellular vesicles (EVs) can potentially become the future of MSC-based therapy in managing canine osteoarthritis. It overcomes the limitations of MSC-based therapy, such as tumor differentiation, immunogenicity, and pulmonary embolization, and has advantages like low immunogenicity and off-shelf availability. In addition, they eliminate problems such as low cell survival, transmission of infections, and unpredictable behavior of the transplanted MSCs, thereby acting as a safe alternative to cell-based therapeutics. However, very limited data is available on the efficacy and safety of cell-free therapy using MSCs for managing canine osteoarthritis. Therefore, large-scale, multicentric, randomized clinical controlled trials are required to establish the therapeutic efficacy and safety of MSC-based cell-free therapy in clinical cases of canine osteoarthritis.

Adipose tissue-derived stromal vascular fraction (AdSVF) comprises a heterogeneous cell population, including the multipotent mesenchymal stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, immune cells, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and pericytes. As such, multipotent adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AdMSCs), are one of the important components of AdSVF. Commonly used techniques to harvest AdSVF involve enzymatic or non-enzymatic methods. The enzymatic method is considered to be the gold standard technique due to its higher yield. The cellular components of AdSVF can be resuspended in normal saline, platelet-rich plasma, or phosphate-buffered saline to produce a ready-to-use solution. Freshly isolated AdSVF has exhibited promising osteogenic and vasculogenic capacity. AdSVF has already been proven to possess therapeutic potential for osteoarthritis management. It is also an attractive therapeutic option for enhancing wound healing. In addition, the combined use of AdSVF and platelet-rich plasma has an additive stimulatory effect in accelerating wound healing and can be considered an alternative to AdMSC treatment. It is also widely used for managing various orthopaedic conditions in clinical settings and has the potential for regenerating bone, cartilage, and tendons. Autologous AdSVF cells are used along with bone substitutes and other biological factors as an alternative to conventional bone grafting techniques owing to their promising osteogenic and vasculogenic capacity. It can also be used for treating osteonecrosis, meniscus tear, chondromalacia, and tendon injuries in veterinary practice. It has several advantages over in vitro expanded AdMSC, including precluding the need for culturing, reduced risk of cell contamination, and cost-effectiveness, making it ideal for clinical use.

Equine atypical myopathy (AM also referred to as multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenases deficiency [MADD]) is thought to be caused by toxins metabolized from hypoglycin A (HGA) and méthylènecyclopropylglycine (MCPrG). HGA is contained in the seeds and seedlings of the sycamore tree (Acer pseudoplatanus); MCPrG has so far only been confirmed in seeds. Among other things, these substances can disrupt the fatty acids β-oxidation pathway with the subsequent accumulation of certain acylcarnitines. The tentative diagnosis is based on anamnesis and clinical signs and can be verified by the detection of elevated creatine kinase activity, specific profile of acylcarnitines and the presence of HGA, MCPrG conjugates and/or their metabolites in peripheral blood and/or urine. Dry blood spots were collected for 15 days from a 3.5-year-old stallion which had been affected by AM and, as a control group, from twelve healthy horses. Two mass spectrometry methods were used for the analysis of 31 acylcarnitines, carnitine, HGA, MCPrG and their metabolites. HGA and six increased acylcarnitines were detected in the patient's blood throughout the monitoring period. Nine acylcarnitines were strongly correlated with HGA. Multivariate statistical analysis showed a clear separation of samples from the AM horse, where the metabolic profile tended to normalization in the later days after intoxication. Due to the longer persistence in the blood, the detection of HGA and elevated acylcarnitines profile appear to be an appropriate tool to confirm the diagnosis of AM, compared to metabolic products of HGA and MCPrG even in advanced cases.

Self-locking feed stanchions provide ease and reduce the amount of time spent handling cattle on free-stall dairy barns. These stanchions assist with routine farm activities such as pregnancy diagnosis, artificial insemination, and various health-related practices. 'Lock-up time' refers to the amount of time a cow is restrained in the barn within one day and the producers suggest to keep this duration of time as minimal as possible. This review paper looks at various effects of extended length of lock-up time with regards to milk production, reproductive performance, and dairy cattle health. The objective is to investigate potential effects of extended lock-up time and suggest optimal lock-up time as discussed in the literature. Authors have observed an average lockup time of approximately 1-4 hours per day in the farms in southwest USA. Restraint in self-locking head stanchions for extended period (> 4 h per day) could lead to multiple detrimental effects in dairy cow performance. The focus should be to manage the farm adequately by minimizing the restraint time to less than 4 hours per day, and avoid use of headlocks during late morning and afternoon hours of the summer months. Different studies infer that longer lock-up time presents animals with significant stress situations and represents one of the major issue in dairy industry that needs immediate attention.

Background: The skin barrier is important in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis and stratum corneum lipids have a critical role. Skin surface lipids have been largely overlooked but also contribute to barrier function. An untargeted approach was used to compare the skin surface lipids from atopic and non-atopic West Highland White terrier dogs (WHWT).

Objectives: The primary hypothesis was that a difference in the lipidome would exist. The secondary hypothesis was that affected and unaffected skin lipids would differ.

Animals and methods: This prospective, cross-sectional, case-controlled study included thirty-nine privately owned WHWTs. Dogs were assigned to one of four disease status groups based on strict criteria. Samples for lipid analysis were collected from the skin surface of unaffected and affected sites. Lipid analysis was by untargeted liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and utilised lipid identification software packages. Principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least-squares discriminant analysis (sPLS-DA) statistical methods analysed the association between the relative lipid abundance and disease status and affected and unaffected skin.

Results: Samples for lipid analysis found 421 lipid soluble features of which ten lipids were positively identified. Statistical analysis could not distinguish between non-atopic and atopic dogs but did reveal a statistically significant difference in the lipid profiles from affected and non-affected skin irrespective of disease status.

Conclusions: A large array of unidentified lipids from the skin surface were found with a difference between affected and unaffected skin unrelated to disease status. Investigation into the lipidome of the skin surface is an emerging area of research with clinical and therapeutic applications.

Current evidence indicates that cats play a limited role in COVID-19 epidemiology, and pets are probably dead-end hosts of SARS-CoV-2 and pose negligible risks of transmission to humans. Still, one health concept is to be adopted widely as a component of mitigation strategies to tackle the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, in terms of the magnitude of infection and potential to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to humans, our surveillance efforts should mainly focus on mustelids (especially minks, ferrets, and others) for early detection and control of infection. This will ensure that SARS-CoV-2 will not get established in the wild animal population of these susceptible species. We agree with Dr. Passarella Teixeira on the possibility of domestic and feral cats acting as an urban reservoir, subsequently transmitting the virus to human beings. However, it is less likely that such a phenomenon will be reported even if it has occurred due to the efficient and extensive human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2.