Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Enterotoxemia caused by type D lambda toxin in newborn goat kids
By Acevedo, Hernando D et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc·2023·Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Enterotoxemia produced by lambda toxin-positivetype D in 2 neonatal goat kids.
- Species:
- goat
Plain-English summary
Two very young Nigerian dwarf goat kids, aged 2 and 3 days, were brought in after showing signs of severe diarrhea and then sadly passing away. A postmortem examination revealed serious intestinal damage and fluid buildup in their lungs. Tests showed that a harmful toxin was present in their intestines, which is unusual for such young goats. This case highlights a rare occurrence of enterotoxemia, a serious condition typically seen in older animals, suggesting that a specific toxin may have triggered the illness in these kids.
People also search for: goat diarrhea treatment · neonatal goat illness · enterotoxemia in goats · Nigerian dwarf goat health issues
Abstract
Enterotoxemia caused bytype D usually affects sheep and goats ≥ 2-wk-old. The main clinical signs and lesions of the disease are produced by the epsilon toxin (ETX) elaborated by this microorganism. However, ETX is produced in the form of a mostly inactive prototoxin that requires protease cleavage for activation. It has traditionally been believed that younger animals are not affected by type D enterotoxemia given the low trypsin activity in the intestinal content associated with the trypsin-inhibitory action of colostrum. Two Nigerian dwarf goat kids, 2- and 3-d-old, with a history of acute diarrhea followed by death, were submitted for postmortem examination and diagnostic workup. Autopsy and histopathology revealed mesocolonic edema, necrosuppurative colitis, and protein-rich pulmonary edema. Alpha toxin and ETX were detected in intestinal content, andtype D was isolated from the colon of both animals. The isolates encoded the gene for lambda toxin, a protease that has been shown previously to activate ETX in vitro. Type D enterotoxemia has not been reported previously in neonatal kids, to our knowledge, and we suggest that lambda toxin activated the ETX.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37212504/