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Tularemia Kills Group of Cats KSU Beef Conference Set Spring 2007 Volume 10, Number 2 Tularemia kills group of cats KSU beef conference set Jerome Nietfeld, DVM However, there are multiple reports in the Adding Value to Calves is the general K-State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory literature of cat to human transmission by session topic for a new two-day Animal Recently we received tissues from a cat bite, so infected cats should be handled Sciences and Industry conference to take cat that was one of a group of six young carefully. The veterinarian said that he place August 9-10 in Manhattan. This adult cats to die within 5 days. Clinical was treating another cat from the same conference is designed to provide informa- symptoms included lethargy, anorexia, household with gentamicin and intrave- tion to help cow/calf producers improve labored breathing, and nasal and ocular nous fluids, and the cat was beginning to profitability. discharges. At necropsy the attending vet- recover. On Thursday industry experts will erinarian noted that the mesenteric lymph Aminoglycoside and fluoroquinolone present information on the current beef nodes and liver were enlarged and the antibiotics are considered to be the antibi- situation and calf market outlook followed lungs were edematous. While processing otics of choice. Tetracyclines are also used by information on practical methods to the tissues at the lab, it was also noted that successfully, but the incidence of relapses add value to calves in a declining market. there were hemorrhages in the mesenteric is higher. Penicillins and cephalosporins Dr. Bill Mies will be the keynote speaker. lymph nodes and small intestine, and that are ineffective. Concurrent demonstrations Friday the spleen contained many white spots. It is not uncommon for us to receive morning include cattle handling, live ani- There are not a lot of things that kill tissues from cases where multiple cats mal evaluation and carcass end products, this many adult cats this quickly. One have died of tularemia in just a few days. and practical cow feeding including ration cause is always some type of toxin, but as In these cases, infection is probably by formulation exercises. far as infectious diseases, in this region ingestion of a rabbit or some other animal Conference information can be found there is feline panleukopenia and tulare- infected with tularemia. Tick bites are the at http://www.asi.ksu.edu/ under Upcom- mia and not much else. Plague, caused by other common method of transmission. ing Events. For registration information Yersinia pestis, is another possibility and it Fifty years ago the most common contact Linda Siebold at 785-532-1281 or can be found in the very western parts of method for people to acquire tularemia, or [email protected]. Kansas, but in the past 13 years we have rabbit fever as it was commonly called, was not had a case that I know about. The cats skinning and cleaning rabbits. Today with had been vaccinated twice for panleukope- much less rabbit hunting, the most com- nia, which made that unlikely. mon method is tick bite. Also in this issue The white spots in the spleen and Cats and rabbits are not the only ani- Diagnosis, treatment of anaplasmosis in hemorrhagic, enlarged lymph nodes were mals that can transmit tularemia. Recently beef herds ..........................................2 suggestive of tularemia, and Francisella there have been news reports of sheep tularensis, the cause of tularemia, was dying in Wyoming of tularemia. I know Bracken fern toxicosis in Kansas cattle ...4 isolated from the cat’s tissues. When tula- a pathologist at another university who Goat abortions caused by caprine remia was first suspected the veterinarian acquired tularemia when he cut himself herpesvirus .......................................6 was contacted in an effort to warn him while collecting samples from a deer to test and the cat’s owners of the possibility of for chronic wasting disease. The wound Upcoming Events ...............................6 tularemia and of possible transmission did not heal, and in a couple of days he from cats to humans. was feverish and the draining lymph nodes Thank you to the Pfizer Animal Health Group, Livestock Division, Cattle Products We diagnose tularemia in cats multiple were swollen and painful. Tularemia is a Group, for financial assistance in publishing times each year and to my knowledge cat serious disease and if anyone suspects it this newsletter. to human transmission has not occurred. they should see a physician immediately. K ANSAS STATE U NIVERSITY AGRI CU LT U RAL E XP ERI M ENT STATION AND C OO P ERATIVE E X TENSION SERVI C E KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE Summer 2007 Diagnosis, treatment of bovine anaplasmosis in beef herds Hans Coetzee, Brandon Reinbold, Palmer et al., 2000; Kocan et al. 2003). peak parasitemia (20 DPI), each test had Kamesh Sirigireddy and Roman Ganta This restricts the export of cattle from a sensitivity of 100%. Thereafter, sensi- Department of Veterinary Clinical endemic areas such as the United States to tivity of the CF test fluctuated between Sciences, Department of Diagnostic non-endemic territories such as Canada. 7.5% and 37.5% while the cELISA test Medicine/Pathobiology Anaplasmosis is therefore a significant remained at 100%. The overall sensitivity impediment to unrestricted international of the cELISA and CF tests was 94.8% Anaplasmosis, caused by the rickett- movement of cattle in North America. and 26.5%, respectively with a kappa sial hemoparasite Anaplasma marginale, Successful measures to control and eradi- statistic of 0.039. is the most prevalent tick-transmitted cate anaplasmosis are confounded by the These results indicate that the cELISA disease of cattle worldwide and a major absence of efficacious antimicrobial regi- has superior sensitivity for the serological obstacle to profitable beef production in detection of A. marginale. It is however the continental United States (Uilenberg., significant that both tests demonstrated a 1995; Dumler et al., 2001; Kocan et al., high percentage of false negatives during 2003). Anaplasmosis is readily transmit- It is estimated that the prepatent period. For the purpose of ted through biological and mechanical identifying anaplasmosis carrier cattle, this vectors such as ticks and biting flies and the introduction of new commercially available cELISA test iatrogenically through needles and equip- anaplasmosis into a now offered by the Veterinary Diagnostic ment contaminated with infected blood. previously naïve herd Laboratory at Kansas State University is Clinical anaplasmosis, characterized can result in a 3.6% reported to have a sensitivity of 96% and by anemia, icterus and fever, is associ- specificity of 95%. ated with significant production losses, reduction in calf Microscopic examination of stained abortions and mortalities in cattle. It is crop, a 30% increase blood films is commonly used to detect estimated that the introduction of ana- in cull rate and a A. marginale organisms in erythrocytes of plasmosis into a previously naïve herd 30% mortality rate infected animals. However, this diagnostic can result in a 3.6% reduction in calf technique may be unreliable when cattle crop, a 30% increase in cull rate and a in clinically infected have minimal infections or in advanced 30% mortality rate in clinically infected adult cattle. cases of the disease when animals are adult cattle (Alderink et al., 1982). Fur- mens to eliminate infections (Coetzee et severely anemic. thermore, a study has shown that 16% of al, 2005), inadequate information regard- In the study described previously, we pregnant carrier cows will transmit ana- ing the usefulness of newer diagnostic observed that the cELISA accurately iden- plasmosis in utero producing persistently tests in determining the success of disease tified all infected cattle before the number infected offspring (Potgieter et al, 1987). eradication, and ineffective vaccines to of A. marginale–infected erythrocytes The existence of both horizontal and protect against new infections. exceeded a PPE of 1%. This suggests that vertical anaplasmosis transmission has the cELISA may be more sensitive than important implications for disease control Diagnosis of Anaplasmosis examination of stained blood films for in endemic areas. The cost of a clini- Members of our research group con- identifying early clinical cases. cal case of anaplasmosis in the USA has ducted a study to compare the sensitivity Furthermore, in instances in which the been conservatively estimated to be more of the complement fixation (CF) and a PPE is low, intraerythrocytic inclusions of than $400 per animal with some estimat- new competitive enzyme-linked immuno- A. marginale may easily be confused with ing the total cost to the beef industry sorbent assay (cELISA) tests for detection Howell-Jolly bodies, basophilic stippling to be more than $300 million per year A. marginale of in experimentally infected of reticulocytes, and stain contamina- (Goodger et al., 1979; Alderink et al., steers (Coetzee et al, 2007). tion. This suggests that the cELISA may 1982; Kocan et al., 2003). Forty Angus X Simmental steers were be a useful alternative to examination of In addition to the costs associated A. experimentally infected with 2.6 x 109 stained blood films for the diagnosis of with clinical anaplasmosis, animals recov- marginale infected erythrocytes. Percent anaplasmosis, especially in situation in ering from acute anaplasmosis, including parasitized erythrocytes (PPE) were deter- which experience of clinicians or the avail- those treated with recommended doses of mined by microscopic examination and able facilities are inadequate for interpreta- tetracyclines, remain lifelong A. marginale sera were tested by CF and cELISA using tion of blood films. carriers. There are currently no antimi- USDA-approved methods from blood Having said this, veterinarians should crobial compounds approved for elimina- collected at 9, 13, 20, 28, 34, 41, 61, 96, exercise caution before making a defini- tion of persistent A. marginale infections 126 and 156 days post infection (DPI).
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