Francesca Beribe

Clinical investigation on Theileria equi and Babesia caballi infections in Italian donkeys

BackgroundInterest in the welfare and diseases of donkeys is constantly increasing in several countries. Despite this, clinical research into donkeys needs to be in continual development since they show different reactions compared to horses in many conditions, including infectious diseases, and need specific clinical and therapeutic approaches. No reports are currently available on clinical and clinical pathology data regarding donkeys with natural piroplasms infection.ResultsVenous blood samples were taken from one hundred and thirty eight donkeys and underwent indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) to detect IgG antibodies against Theileria equi and Babesia caballi and real-time polimerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect Babesia spp. and Theileria spp. Clinical examinations, haematological analyses and serum bilirubin evaluation were also performed and compared with positive or negative status. A seroprevalence of 40.6% and 47.8% was found for T. equi and B. caballi, respectively; double positivity was detected in 19.6% of the animals. PCR results showed that 17.4% of the animals tested positive for T.equi and 3.6% for B. caballi with no double positivity. Twelve donkeys (8.7%) had clinical signs consistent with chronic forms of the disease and no acute forms were detected. Fifty-eight donkeys had haematological and serum bilirubin alterations and 56 (96.6%) of them were IFAT and/or PCR positive. Changes in erythrocyte number, packed cell volume, hemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, platelets number and total bilirubin were significantly associated with positive and symptomatic animals.ConclusionNonspecific clinical presentation seems to be very common in donkeys and several clinical pathology alterations persist after natural infection. Therefore, apparently healthy donkeys can have masked but severe clinical pathology alterations. Acute forms are very seldom observed in donkeys. Clinical monitoring of chronically infected donkeys is recommended since such animals represent a risk both for transmission to other animals and for their own health; furthermore, their production performances could be reduced. The study should also be intended as a contribution for veterinary practitioners because it describes the most usual clinical presentations and laboratory findings of equine piroplasmosis in naturally infected donkeys in endemic areas.

Epidermolysis Bullosa in the Dog: Four Cases

Cerquetella, M., Spaterna, A., Beribe, F., Mechelli, L. and Tesei, B., 2005. Epidermolysis bullosa in the dog: Four cases. Veterinary Research Communications, 29(Suppl. 2), 289-291

Clinic and ultrasonographic findings in a cat with Tetralogy of Fallot.

Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is a congenital cardiopathy of man and domestic animals. Fallot was a cardiologist in human medicine of the late 19th–early 20th century. This cardiac malformation is characterized by ventricular septal defect, dextroposition of the aorta, pulmonic stenosis and consequent right ventricular hypertrophy. Cardiac morphological alterations in TOF derive from a defective fetal development of both pulmonary and aortic arteries, resulting from troncus arteriosus, and right and left ventricular outflow tracts, resulting from conus arteriosus. There is also an incomplete development of the conotruncal septum which causes a skew between dorsal and apical parts of interventricular septum. As shown by Goodwin and Cooper (1992), pulmonary stenosis causes an increased resistance to blood flow ejected from the right ventricle. This leads to hypertrophy and hypertension of this ventricle, and leads to a right-to-left shunt through interventricular septum defect. The first consequence of the shunt is an inflow in aorta of bad oxygenated blood, that can easily induce hypoxia. Symptoms are failure to grow, exercise intolerance, cyanosis and syncope. Cyanosis depends on the entity of the shunt and it is not always present, but it is typical of most cases. For this reason, in the past the illness was called ‘‘blue disease’’ because of the colour assumed by mucosae. Cyanosis is always present when the subject gets excited or during physical effort, when even asphyxia can occur. TOF is more common for dogs than for cats (Patterson et al., 1993). For this species diagnosis is performed by anatomo-pathological examination or angiography which is an invasive intra vitam examination involving a lot of risks (Eyster et al., 1977). The aim of this report is to furnish a contribution to the study of this pathology in cats, especially for the non-invasive diagnostic methods such as ultrasound.