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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Horse found dead with severe brain infection - what to know

By Fu, Dah-Jiun et al.Ā·Published in Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, IncĀ·2021Ā·Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, United StatesĀ·View original on PubMed →

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Original publication title: meningoencephalitis in a horse.

Species:
horse
Brain & nervesHorses

Plain-English summary

A 3-year-old female Quarter Horse was found dead after showing sudden signs of neurological problems. A postmortem examination revealed bleeding spots in the brain, and further tests showed severe inflammation and infection in the brain and its protective layers. The tests identified a specific type of bacteria that likely caused this serious brain infection. Unfortunately, the horse did not survive.

Abstract

A 3-y-old, female Quarter Horse with a history of acute neurologic signs was found dead and was submitted for postmortem examination. Areas of petechial and ecchymotic hemorrhage were present on cross-sections of the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem. Histologic examination of the brain revealed severe, purulent meningoencephalitis and vasculitis with a myriad of intralesional gram-positive cocci.was identified from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue obtained from sites with active lesions by PCR and nucleotide sequencing of bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA.should be considered as a cause of meningoencephalitis in a horse.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34109867/