BackgroundOptimal procedure for storage of feline blood is needed. Open‐collection systems have been employed in feline medicine, thus limiting the possibility for storage.ObjectivesTo evaluate indicators of quality of feline blood stored for 35 days at +4°C in a closed‐collection system specifically designed for cats.AnimalsEight healthy adult European domestic shorthair cats with a weight of 5‐6.8 kg.MethodsThis is a case series study. A bacteriological test, CBC, blood smear, pH, osmotic fragility, 2,3‐diphosphoglycerate (2,3‐DPG), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) measurement were performed weekly on whole blood (WB) units from day 1 to day 35 after donation. The hemolysis index, lactate and potassium concentrations, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and fibrinogen were measured on plasma aliquots.ResultsOne out of eight blood units (BUs) had bacterial growth (Serratia marcescens) at day 35. No significant differences were found regarding CBC, morphology, pH, and osmotic fragility. Despite high inter‐individual variability and low starting levels, significant decreases in the mean concentrations of 2,3‐DPG (T0 1.99 mmol/g Hb, SD 0.52, T35 1.25 mmol/g Hb, SD 1.43; P = .003) and ATP (T0 1.45 mmol/g Hb, SD 0.71, T35 0.62 mmol/g Hb, SD 0.51; P < .001) were detected during the study, as opposed to an increase in hemolysis (T0 0.11 mmol/L, SD 0.07, T35 0.84 mmol/L, SD 0.19; P < .001), lactate (T0 3.30 mmol/L, SD 0.86, T35 13.36 mmol/L, SD 2.90; P < .001), and potassium (T0 3.10 mmol/L, SD 0.21, T35 4.12 mmol/L, SD 0.35; P < .001) concentrations.Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceThe commercial BU kit is appropriate for blood collection and conservation of WB in cats. The maintenance of WB quality indicators during storage is essential for future improvements of feline transfusion medicine.

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Bacterial environmental and surgical site infection (SSI) surveillance was implemented from 2011–2016 in a UK Equine Referral Veterinary Hospital and identified 81 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates. A cluster of MRSA SSIs occurred in early 2016 with the isolates confirmed as ST398 by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), which prompted retrospective analysis of all MRSA isolates obtained from the environment (n = 62), SSIs (n = 13) and hand plates (n = 6) in the past five years. Sixty five of these isolates were typed to CC398 and a selection of these (n = 38) were further characterised for resistance and virulence genes, SCCmec and spa typing. Overall, MRSA was identified in 62/540 (11.5%) of environmental samples, 6/81 of the hand-plates (7.4%) and 13/208 of the SSIs (6.3%). spa t011 was the most frequent (24/38) and Based Upon Repeat Pattern (BURP) analysis identified spa t011 as one of the two group founders of the main spa CC identified across the five years (spa CC011/3423). However, 3 singletons (t073, t786, t064) were also identified suggesting separate introductions into the hospital environment. This long-term MRSA surveillance study revealed multiple introductions of MRSA CC398 in a UK Equine Hospital, identifying an emerging zoonotic pathogen so far only sporadically recorded in the UK.

Subclinical mastitis in dairy cows is a big economic loss for farmers. The monitoring of subclinical mastitis is usually performed through Somatic Cell Count (SCC) in farm but there is the need of new diagnostic systems able to quickly identify cows affected by subclinical infections of the udder. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential application of thermographic imaging compared to SCC and bacteriological culture for infection detection in cow affected by subclinical mastitis and possibly to discriminate between different pathogens. In this study we evaluated the udder health status of 98 Holstein Friesian dairy cows with high SCC in 4 farms. From each cow a sample of milk was collected from all the functional quarters and submitted to bacteriological culture, SCC and Mycoplasma spp. culture. A thermographic image was taken from each functional udder quarter and nipple. Pearson's correlations and Analysis of Variance were performed in order to evaluate the different diagnostic techniques. The most frequent pathogen isolated was Staphylococcus aureus followed by Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CNS), Streptococcus uberis, Streptococcus agalactiae and others. The Somatic Cell Score (SCS) was able to discriminate (p<0.05) cows positive for a pathogen from cows negative at the bacteriological culture except for cows with infection caused by CNS. Infrared thermography was correlated to SCS (p<0.05) but was not able to discriminate between positive and negative cows. Thermographic imaging seems to be promising in evaluating the inflammation status of cows affected by subclinical mastitis but seems to have a poor diagnostic value.

The assumption that requires the uterus to be a sterile environment to sustain a successful pregnancy has been recently challenged in humans, and is still under debate. The aim of this study was to assess whether bacteria can be isolated from the pregnant uterus and from amniotic fluid and meconium of healthy canine fetuses at term, delivered through cesarean section. Fifteen dams of different breed, age and parity, undergoing either elective (n = 10) or emergency (n = 5) cesarean section after a healthy pregnancy, were included in the study. Swabs for bacterial culture were collected from the uterus, and from amniotic fluid and meconium. Bacteria were isolated from all the sampled sites and materials, irrespective of cesarean type. In most cases, different bacteria were isolated from the different sites. Acinetobacter spp., coagulase-negative Staphylococci and Bacillus spp. were frequently found while Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus spp., Moraxella spp., Macrococcus spp., Glutamicibacter spp., Stenotrophomonas spp. and Psychrobacter spp. were only occasionally identified. Our data show that uterus and fetuses may not be sterile in healthy term canine pregnancies.