Septicemic salmonellosis in a two-humped camel calf (Camelus bactrianus)

Abstract

A 1-week old, two-humped female camel (Camelus bactrianus) calf with continual whining, epiphora, anorexia, muscle twitching, and lateral recumbency was referred to a veterinary hospital. Although she died shortly after preliminary clinical examination, but necropsy was performed and tissue samples were taken for further microbiological and pathological examinations. On bacteriological investigation, Salmonella typhimurium and Streptococcus agalactiae were isolated. Histopathologically, lesions consisted of hyperemia and hemorrhage in all serosal and mucosal surfaces, gastroenteritis, and purulent ascites, associated with suppurative omphalitis. Acute nutmeg liver demonstrated centrilobular congestion and moderate fatty changes without any inflammatory cell infiltration. The abomasal and intestinal mucosa were hemorrhagic and erosive. The brain was hyperemic with severe fibrinopurulent meningoencephalitis. Except for dromedary camels and llamas, there has been no previous report of an acute, fatal septicemia in a two-humped camel calf due to S. typhimurium accompanied by S. agalactiae.

Zoonotic implications of camel diseases in Iran

“…were contaminated with S. Typhimurium (Nour-Mohammadzadeh et al, 2010). Cross-sectional studies on camels revealed that 43% and 100% of camel milk samples were infected by Salmonella spp.…”

Characterization of Salmonella Frintrop isolated from dromedary camels ( Camelus dromedarius )

“…Nevertheless, diverse occurrence of this pathogen has been reported in camels in the literature; some authors showed a low presence of Salmonella (Wernery, 1992), while others reported a medium or high prevalence in captive dromedaries (Molla et al, 2004;Moore et al, 2002;Münch et al, 2012;Tejedor-Junco et al, 2010). As in this study, salmonellosis in dromedaries is generally asymptomatic, although clinical Salmonella infections have been reported with symptoms that included epiphora, anorexia, muscle twitching and lateral recumbency (Nour-Mohammadzadeh et al, 2010). In addition, controlling Salmonella infections in camels should be taken into account, as it has been shown that Salmonella could be the cause of co-infections such as clostridia or theileriosis diseases (Abdelwahab et al, 2019).…”