Louis, Missouri, USA), modified from the method described by [12]

Louis, Missouri, USA), modified from the method described by [12]. associated with neonatal septicaemia [5,4,13]. The taxonomy of equine actinobacilli is usually unclear. Historically, all em Actinobacillus /em spp. isolated from horses have been named em A. equuli /em , but further taxonomical studies have revealed several unique types [2,9,18] of equine actinobacilli, although a definite classification of this group of bacteria is not yet ITI214 free base available. Consequently, the pathogenic potential of various subtypes has not been fully decided. Generalised infections with em Actinobacillus /em spp. are extremely rare in adult horses, unless some other underlying disease or other predisposing factor is present. The foal is usually believed to be infected during, or shortly after, birth. Failure of passive transfer, i.e. colostrum deficiency, has sometimes been specifically associated with equine actinobacillosis [11,20,16], but the presence or absence of specific antibodies against the infecting strain were not investigated in these studies. The presence of serum antibodies in the mare against the strain infecting the foal has been reported in clinical cases [7,8,17], but it is not obvious whether all these cases were subject to failure of passive transfer. In some cases of neonatal actinobacillosis, em A. equuli /em has been isolated from both the healthy mother and the sick foal [14]. em A. equuli /em , as well as other em Actinobacillus /em spp., are commonly isolated from your oral cavity of healthy horses [2,19], and sometimes the same strain is present in both ITI214 free base the mare and her foal [19]. It is likely that foal actinobacillosis is usually caused by one of the strains present in the dam’s normal flora. The uptake via colostrum of specific antibodies against actinobacilli present in the ITI214 free base oral cavity of the mare would provide the foal with protection against contamination with these strains. The aim of this study was to establish whether specific antibodies against actinobacilli present in the oral cavity of healthy mares could be detected in their serum and colostrum and if such antibodies could also ITI214 free base be found in the serum of their newborn foals. Materials and methods Sampling Serum, colostrum and culture samples were taken from 15 mares and Rabbit Polyclonal to CRP1 14 of their newborn foals, within 24 h of birth. One foal died, due to noninfectious disease, ITI214 free base and was therefore not available for sampling. From 2 mares, colostrum samples were not available. With one exception, sampling was made at least 10 h after intake of colostrum. From 1 foal, the blood sample was taken only 1 1 h after intake of colostrum. Blood samples were collected in Vacutainer? (Becton Dickinson, Meylan Cedex, France) tubes and centrifuged at 150 g for 5 min, after which aliquots of serum were stored at -70C. Colostrum samples were divided into aliquots and kept at -70C until further analysis. For the swab samples, a commercial swab-and-transport system (Transystem, Copan, Bovezzo, Italy) was used, and sampling from your buccal part of the oral cavity of both mares and foals was performed as earlier explained [19]. With one exception, all samples were kept at 8C until transported to the laboratory, within 24 h of sampling. The samples from one mare and one foal were accidentally kept at a temperature of 20C30C overnight. One mare had been systemically treated with a combination of penicillin and streptomycin before sampling. The experimental design was approved by the Ethical Committee for Animal Experiments, Uppsala, Sweden. Bacterial culture The swabs were streaked onto agar plates (blood agar base no. 2, Oxoid, Basingstoke, UK), supplemented with 5% horse blood. Each sample was also cultured.