Using culture, immunofluorescence and fetal serology, leptospiral infection was demonstrated in aborted, stillborn and weak lambs from nine out of 42 flocks investigated during the 1980 and 1981 lambing seasons. Three serogroups of leptospira, namely the Hebdomadis, Australis and Pomona serogroups, were implicated.
Twenty-nine cases of Clostridium chauvoei infection in cattle were investigated over a two-year period. Fourteen had lesions of myositis only, eight had lesions of both myositis and fibrinous pericarditis, six had lesions of fibrinous pericarditis only and one had lesions of purulent meningitis only. Cl chauvoei was identified in all the lesions using the fluorescent antibody technique.
Fifteen cows among a herd of 50 suckler cows and calves rapidly lost body condition and became dull and anorexic after grazing pasture containing bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) during the summer of 1989. The affected cows had evidence of kidney damage characterised by elevated plasma urea and creatinine concentrations. Eleven cows died and diffuse renal tubular necrosis was present in three cows which were examined post mortem. Similar renal lesions were reproduced experimentally by feeding bog asphodel to a healthy calf.
A two-year longitudinal, microbiological and pathological survey of respiratory disease in lambs housed for fattening at three-and-a-half to four months of age was undertaken. In the first year samples of nasal mucus and blood were taken from lambs each week for the first nine weeks after entry to a fattening unit and each week one lamb was examined post mortem. In the second year two additional fattening units were included in the survey, when samples of blood and nasal mucus were taken from lambs twice weekly for three weeks after entry and two lambs from each unit were examined post mortem eight to 11 days after entry to the unit. In both years the lambs had a nasal discharge and were coughing. Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae and Pasteurella haemolytica were the organisms most consistently isolated from the lungs, trachea and nasal mucus. Mycoplasma arginini and parainfluenza-3 virus were also isolated. Post mortem examination lesions of atypical, pasteurella-type and parasitic pneumonias were seen. In the second year an abattoir survey of pneumonia lesions was undertaken. Areas of pulmonary consolidation were seen in 27.5 per cent, bands of consolidation in 47.5 per cent and muellerius-type lesions in 28 per cent of the lungs examined. No significant correlation was found between the slaughter weights of the lambs and the extent of the lung lesions at slaughter.
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