No abstract

On March 11 2011, a tsunami caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake devastated the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan.The present study was conducted to assess environmental health risks of the areas affected and socio-psychological status of the dislocated people in Ishinomaki.

An imported crossbred Angus beef steer aged eight to twelve months died suddenly on the eighth day of a quarantine period in Japan. Gross examination showed the peritoneum and mesentery consisted of numerous nodules of various sizes. Histological examination revealed chronic suppurative granulomatous peritonitis with eosinophilic rosettes surrounding colonies of Gram-negative bacilli. The bacteria isolated from the nodules were confirmed to be Actinobacillus lignieresii based on the results of 16S rRNA gene sequencing and immunohistochemistry. Antibiotic sensitivity testing showed that the isolate was resistant to penicillin. Thus, a diagnosis of atypical actinobacillosis caused by A. lignieresii was made.

A 1-month-old rabbit, imported as a pet by a distributor, died suddenly in the quarantine period in Japan due to suppurative pleuropneumonia. A bacterial isolate from its right lung was identified as Pasteurella multocida serotype A: 11. The isolate was classified as ST204 using the RIRDC scheme of multilocus sequence typing, suggesting that the isolate was genetically related to European isolates of the same sequence type listed in the PubMLST database and not to four other isolates that originated from past imported rabbits. In the immunohistochemical assay, an antiserum recognizing the somatic serotype 11 antigen generated from chicken could specifically detect P. multocida, indicating that the antiserum for somatic serotyping was useful for immunohistochemical diagnosis of rabbit pasteurellosis.