No abstract

No abstract

Abstract. Acanthamoeba were isolated from a naturally occurring animal infection of granulomatous amebic encephalitis. The amebas were grown from lung lesions from a 1-year-old greyhound puppy, which was 1 of several dogs in a kennel that was affected by a progressive fatal neurologic and respiratory disease. The Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia, confirmed the disease to be acanthamebiasis and specifically identified the amebas as Acanthamoeba culbertsoni by fluorescent antibody testing on brain tissue from the dog. The amebas were cultured initially on potato dextrose agar and on nonnutrient agar plates that were seeded with a lawn of nonpathogenic Escherichia coli. The isolate was then transferred to nonnutrient agar plates containing killed Enterobacter aerogenes and subsequently to axenic medium and cell cultures. The isolate was highly pathogenic by intranasal inoculation into 2-week-old mice.Acanthamebiasis is an infection by a free-living ameba, Acanthamoeba, which was proven pathogenic in 1958 by Culbertson et al. 10,11 The name granulomatous amebic encephalitis (GAE) was given to Acanthamoeba infections to differentiate this disease from another encephalitic amebic disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), which is caused by a closely related genus, Naegleria, 5,27 The first reported free-living amebic infection was in 1965, and although believed to be caused by Acanthamoeba at the time of the report, it is now thought to have been caused by Naegleria.14 The first confirmed human case of acanthamebiasis was not reported until 1972, 19 but other cases that occurred at earlier dates have been retrospectively diagnosed as Acanthamoeba infections. 22,28,39 16,19,[24][25][26]38 The clinical course of the disease in humans is usually prolonged, with an insidious onset and an extended course of weeks to months. 15,27,36 The pathogenesis of acanthamebiasis is still unclear, partly because the disease is commonly diagnosed late in the infection. Proposed routes of infection include inhalation of the organisms from the air or exposure of the organisms to the nasal cavity from swimming in contaminated water. 27 In the upper respiratory tract, the organisms can replicate and either infect the brain directly by migration up the olfactory nerves or indirectly by hematogenous spread from a primary lung infection. 24,27,36 Some reports have suggested hematogenous spread to the brain from external wound contamination. 17,22,33 Besides an encephalitis and pneumonia, Acanthamoeba can cause eye infection in humans, which is usually associated with soft contact lens wear. 30,34 Therefore, extension of the organisms via the optic nerve from eye infections could be another possible pathogenesis of encephalitis. 20 Cases of acanthamebiasis in animals usually have been reported as individual isolated cases, 2,12,29,32 but there are reports of multiple cases in greyhounds. 15,18 Acanthamoeba have been isolated in a few human cases, 36 but there are no reports of isolation from animal infe...

A 6-week-old, female, mixed-breed dog with a clinical history of sudden onset of neurologic signs was presented for necropsy. The dog was diagnosed with suppurative and histiocytic meningoencephalitis based on necropsy findings and histopathology. Mycoplasma sp. was isolated in pure culture from the brain and meninges and was identified as Mycoplasma edwardii using DNA sequencing.

Abstract. A commercial gram-negative bacterial autoidentification plate was originally developed using bacterial isolates of human origin. Three veterinary diagnostic laboratories conducted a 2-phase trial to enhance the database for veterinary use. The first phase consisted of testing the plate with 447 bacterial isolates of veterinary origin and incorporating that data into the existing database. Emphasis was placed on the Actinobacillus, Bordetella, Pasteurella and Enterobacteriaceae groups, since the Pseudomonas taxon was quite complete. The second phase of the trial consisted of evaluating the enhanced database using 270 clinical veterinary isolates normally encountered in veterinary laboratories. For the Actinobacillus, Bordetella, Pasteurella and Enterobacteriaceae groups, 72% of the bacterial isolates were identified correctly to genus and 61% to species after 5 hours incubation. Eighty-nine percent of the bacterial isolates were identified correctly to genus and 85% to species after 18 hours incubation. All identifications in phase 1 and phase 2 were confirmed using conventional methods.The bacteria frequently associated with infectious diseases of animals often fall into categories less commonly encountered in humans and, therefore, are not included in the databases of the automated identification systems used in human medicine. A 3-laboratory collaborative effort was made to enhance the database of an automated identification system for veterinary use. Subsequently, the 3 laboratories challenged the autoidentification 5-hour and 18-hour systems using fresh clinical isolates and compared the results with conventional methods. Material and methodsParticipant laboratories. This study was conducted by 3 laboratories representing different geographic regions and therefore different animal populations of the United States. They included the University of Georgia Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (Tifton, GA), the University of Missouri Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (Columbia, MO), and the New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). Cornell Diagnostic Laboratory served as the coordinating laboratory. Each trial center used media and reagents consistent with their routine diagnostic testing. A protocol using conventional biochemical methods was defined by the coordinating laboratory to serve as the reference method for identifying test isolates. negative autoidentification system a supplied quality control (QC) organisms on freeze-dried gelatin discs maintained at 2-8 C. They included Escherichia coli ATCC 4157, Klebsiella oxytoca ATCC 8724, Morganella morganii ATCC 25830, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 10145, and Proteus vulgaris ATCC 6896. To prepare the organisms for testing, a disc was aseptically placed onto a blood agar plate (BAP) such as trypticase soy agar containing 5% sheep blood, incubated 5 min at 35-37 C to allow the disc to liquify, and then streaked across the entire plate. The plate was incubated for 18-24 hr at 35-37 C to determine purity and vi...