Equine Infectious GI disease Flashcards
Infectious causes of equine gastrointestinal disease
- Salmonella
- Clostridium perfringens and clostridium difficile
Top 2 tend to be more severe - Equine coronavirus - milder
- Rotavirus - foals only
- ## Ehrlichia risticii - Potomac Horse FEver (not UK yet)Acute necrotic colitis and dysentery
All tend to cause diarrhoea
What rick does equine gastrointestinal disease pose?
Biosecurity hazard
Due to the biosecurity hazard of equine infectious gastrointestinal disease, what is the administration policy?
• Policy is not to admit any horse with a high suspicion of having infectious colitis in a hospital without an appropriate isolation facility.
• Therefore, when a referring veterinarian has established that a horse has any 2 of the following 3 clinical signs horse goes straight into isolation in a dedicated facility:
1. Acute diarrhoae
2. Fever
3. Low white blood cell count
What is classed as a fever and low WBC count in horse?
o Fever (temperature over 38.5oC) Normal = 37.5-38.5°C o Low white blood cell count (less than 4.0x109cells/L)
Isolation facility
Own water and feed source. Mucked out directly into yellow bags
What bacteria causes salmonellosis in horses?
- Salmonella enterica (most common) or salmonella bongori
2. It causes Salmonella Enterocolitis - bacterial infection in small intestine lining
Talk about salmonelle enterica
the vast majority seen in equine hospital
o 6 subspecies esp Salmonella enterica subsp enterica
o Over 2000 serovars esp. Typhimurium
o Others include Newport, Anatum and Agona
• can be Host specific and non‐host specific
o Host specific cause more systemic disease
Morphology and Pathogenesis of salmonella enterica
- Gram –ve motile bacillus
- Modified flagellae & pilli used for plasmid exchange
- Facultative anaerobe
- Facultatively intracellular –the most pathologic strains are best at this – best at going into cells and causing damage
- Wide range of antibiotic resistance
P:
Bacteria penetrates through SI epithelium, binds to epithelium with adhesions, release effectors which lead to bacterial mediated endocytosis, trigger cascade of celleular signals, release endotoxins lead to intestinal damage
What are the properties of salmonella enterica that aid virulence?
- Adhesion molecules –3 different types (species selectivity)
- Invasion genes –encode proteins that cause ruffles in enterocyte membrane and Salmonellae become interiorized.
- Salmonella Virulence Plasmids –allow for intracellular growth, serum resistance and cellular invasion
- 3 Exotoxins that all result in diarrhoea –cAMP, Cytotoxin, Phospholipase A activity
- Leads to intestinal damage which results in endotoxemia
What factors inc host susceptibility to salmonella?
o Antibiotic treatment o General Anaesthesia o Transport o Competition o Hospitalisation o Surgery o Feed withdrawal, change in feed (hospital hay) o Anthelmintic treatment o Suppress gastric acid? o ANY STRESS
What is the pathological response to invasion?
o Inc neutrophil recruitment
o GI inflammation
o Inc fluid secretion into GI lumen
o Then neutrophils release inflammatory mediators which cause massive epithelial damage, tissue necrosis - loss of protein, loss of SIRS, and endotoxin release
• Exotoxins exacerbate inflammation and necrosis and promote more diarrhoea
• Endotoxemia
What is endotoxemia known as?
related to whihc GI infection?
systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS)
SALMONELLA
Broadly what is the host response to salmonella and so what is the main treatment?
- AIM - get rid of salmonella nad toxins
2. Treatment - SUPPORTIVE
What is the host response to salmonella?
• Diarrhoea dilutes Salmonella and toxins and removes them from body
• Diarrhoea and endotoxaemia leads to severe shock and cardio‐circulatory collapse
o If hydration can be maintained diarrhoea and inflammatory response eliminates infection
Treatment for salmonellosis
- Supportive
- fluid therapy to replace losses, colloids to replace loss of proteins and balance electrolytes
- Not all treatment will be successful, can lead to this level of necrosis, horses often lost to this disease
• Antibiotics are controversial:
o often haven’t proven salmonella for few days until positive culture
o AB disrupts normal GI flora – risk factor in first place