Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Foal with severe trouble breathing diagnosed with Rhodococcus equi
By Retteg Pauls, Stephanie et al.·Published in DTW. Deutsche tierarztliche Wochenschrift·2009·University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Immunohistological demonstration of Rhodococcus equi in a trotter foal.
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
A 3-month-old female trotter foal had to be put to sleep because she was having severe trouble breathing. After her death, the examination showed she had a serious lung infection called pneumonia, and a bacteria known as Rhodococcus equi was found. Researchers developed a special testing method to identify this bacteria in tissue samples, which involved using a specific antibody and heating the samples to improve the results. This new method could help in diagnosing similar infections in horses in the future. Unfortunately, in this case, the foal did not survive.
Abstract
A 3-month-old female trotter foal was euthanized due to severe dyspnoea. Pathomorphologically a chronic granulomatous to necrotizing pneumonia was found and Rhodoccocus (R.) equi was isolated microbiologically. An immunohistological method using a murine monoclonal antibody against a 15-17 kDa antigen of virulent R. equi was established in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue sections using various antigen retrieval techniques to optimize the staining results. Microwave treatment was most suitable for the demonstration of bacterial antigen localized predominantly in intralesional macrophages. Immunohistology is an additional method for identifying R. equi-infections in equine tissue and may be useful in retrospective studies on paraffin-embedded archive material.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19813451/