Joseph E. Wagner

Teratology, survival, and reversal learning after fetal irradiation of mice by 2450-MHz microwave energy.

In the first of two factorially designed studies, 80 primigravid mice of the C3H-HeJ strain were subjected to 2450-MHz sinusoidally modulated microwave radiation or to sham radiation (with or without an accompanying injection of 5 mg of cortisone as a teratological marker) on the 11th, 12th, 13th or 14th day of gestation. The radiation treatment consisted of a single intense dosing of microwave energy (38 mW/g for 600 sec.= 22.8 J/g) in a multi-mode cavity. On the 19th day of gestation fetuses were taken via Caesarean section and were observed for gross structural abnormalities. While radiation of dams failed reliably to increase the incidence of fetal mortality or morbidity above that of controls, the dams treated with cortisone gave birth to reliably greater numbers of stillborn and deformed fetuses. In the second experiment and during their 14th day of gestation 60 primigravid mice received the radiation of sham-radiation treatment, half with, half without, the accompanying injection of cortisone. A virtually complete failure to survive to weaning characterized the pups born of the sham-radiated cortisone-treated group of dams, but the incidence of cortisone-induced mortality was reliably reduced in pups whose dams were also radiated by microwave energy. Pups sampled from all but the depleted group were observed later as young adults for competency in mastering a series of reversal habits in a water maze. No differences in maze performances were observed in the mice as a function of their placement in the control or the radiation condition, but offspring of cortisone-treated, radiated dams made reliably more errors. Careful measurement of elevations of colonic temperatures of radiated dams shortly after treatment with cortisone revealed an averaged deltaT that is close to that observed in a comparably radiated volume of water of equivalent mass. If the finding has generality beyond the gravid mouse-it, that is, cortisone effectively and reversibly renders the mammal ectothermic-an important advance in biological dosimetry of non-ionizing radiation may be at hand.

Treatment of experimentally induced cytauxzoonosis in cats with parvaquone and buparvaquone.

The efficacy of parvaquone (Clexon) and buparvaquone (Butalex) in treating experimentally induced feline cytauxzoonosis was explored. Domestic cats were inoculated subcutaneously with blood from a cat infected with Cytauxzoon felis and treated daily with either 20 or 30 mg kg-1 parvaquone, or 5 or 10 mg kg-1 buparvaquone, beginning on either the first day parasites were detected in peripheral blood, or 2 days after the onset of parasitemia. Fifteen cats were treated and all but one died due to the infection. Unexpectedly, one of two non-treated, infected control cats survived. Although parvaquone and buparvaquone are the treatments of choice for a related hemoprotozoan parasite causing theileriosis in African cattle, wer concluded that at the dosages and regimes tested, these drugs are not effective treatments for feline cytauxzoonosis. Blood from the two surviving cats was inoculated into naive cats and in these animals clinical disease or death were not observed. The latter two naive recipient cats were then inoculated with a lethal dose of viable, frozen C. felis and both died, thereby indicating that blood from surviving cats did not induce an infectious state that resulted in immunity. The two cats that survived the acute infection were subsequently challenged with a lethal inoculum of C. felis; they showed no clinical signs of cytauxzoonosis and were obviously immune to reinfection.

Experimentally induced cytauxzoonosis-like disease in domestic cats

Abstract The methods by which the organisms causing feline cytauxzoonosis have been maintained in laboratory cats for 2.5 years are described. Passage of the parasite was accomplished by parenteral administration of fresh or deep frozen blood or ground tissue from infected moribund cats. The clinical disease produced experimentally by minimal doses fo inoculum resembled naturally occurring feline cytauzoonosis. The most frequently noted clinical signs included pyrexia, anorexia, dehydration, and depression. The experimentally induced illness was consistently fatal within 20 days. The domestic cat is believed to be an accidental or dead-end host of the infection in nature because of the short course of illness and the uniformly fatal outcome of the disease.

Spontaneous feline sporotrichosis: A fine structural study

Fine structural details of the parasitic yeastlike phase of Sporothrix schenckii contained in biopsy tissue from a naturally-occurring case of disseminated feline sporotrichosis are described and illustrated by electron microscopy. Both free and phagocytosed fungal cells were observed. The fungal cells were contained within an extracellular, electron transparent vacuolar area which was bounded by a limiting membrane of probable host origin. The yeastlike cells were characterized by a conspicuous layer of osmiophilic microfilaments which occurred along the outermost surface of the cell wall. In many yeastlike cells, scattered, membranebound vacuoles containing electron opaque material were observed in the cytoplasm. Asteroid bodies were not observed.

Klossiella parasites of animals: A literature review

Abstract The history of Klossiella species is reviewed. The life cycle of K. muris is described in detail. Other species are described with attention given to their differences from K. muris.

Husbandry and Medicine of Small Rodents

Biology, physiology, husbandry, and commonly occurring diseases of small rodent pets, including the Syrian hamster, Mongolian gerbil, rat, and mouse, are presented.

Lesions of experimentally induced Tyzzer's disease in Syrian hamsters, guineapigs, mice and rats.

The relative susceptibilities of C57BL/6NCR and BALB/cANNCR mice, F344/NCR rats, 2/NCR guineapigs and CR:RGH Syrian hamsters to Bacillus piliformis infection were determined by orally inoculating 20 weanling females from each species with suspensions of B. piliformis spores. Animals from each group were sequentially necropsied over 2 week periods to document the lesions produced. No significant gross or microscopic lesions were observed in the BALB mice or the Fischer rats. Gross and microscopic lesions were observed in the livers and intestines of many guineapigs and hamsters killed 3–14 days after inoculation. A large lesion was observed in the left cardiac ventricle of one C57BL mouse 10 days after inoculation. Warthin-Starry silver-stained tissue sections revealed clusters of B. piliformis within the cytoplasm of intestinal epithelial cells, smooth muscle cells, hepatocytes and myocytes bordering foci of necrosis in the intestines, liver and heart.

A computer based system for collection, storage, retrieval and reporting accession information in a veterinary medical diagnostic laboratory

Abstract Substantial data collected from large numbers of accessions, the need for comprehensive reporting of negative as well as positive laboratory findings, and the necessity for obtaining rapid diagnostic correlations prompted the development of a computer based system of accession data management for collection, storage, rapid retrieval, reporting, concording, and administrative compiling in a state-university Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.

Klossiella sp. in the kidneys of two bats (Myotis sodalis)

Abstract Organisms believed to be Klossiella sp. sporonts were seen in histological sections prepared from the kidneys of two insectivorous bats ( Myotis sodalis ). Three apparent stages of sporogony were encountered. This is believed to be the first report of Klossiella sp. in bats.

Effect of some oral contraceptive steroids on the development of endometrial squamous metaplasia and cysts in rats

Abstract Female rats were injected subcutaneously with 50 μg of norethynodrel plus 2 μg of mestranol per 100 grams of body weight per day for 13 weeks. Controls were treated identically with vehicle alone. These contraceptive steroid treatments caused a significant increase in the incidence of endometrial squamous metaplasia and cyst formation. Treated rats had smaller ovarian and body weights but larger uteri with more luminal fluid than the controls.