ABSTRACT
Chlamydia psittaci has not been reported to cause disease in domestic cats, to our knowledge. In contrast, C. felis infection is common in domestic cats and typically results in conjunctivitis, upper respiratory tract infection, and less frequently pneumonia. Herein, we report the pathologic findings and diagnostic features of a fatal case of psittacosis in a 7-wk-old domestic kitten. The animal was 1 of a litter of 5 that, together with the queen, were yielded to a pet rescue center in Wyoming. Over a period of ~3 wk, the kittens and queen became sick, thin, and icteric prior to death, despite antimicrobial treatments. Postmortem evaluation of a kitten revealed necrosuppurative hepatitis with Gimenez stain-positive intracellular bacteria, nonsuppurative pneumonia, and mild leptomeningitis. The diagnosis of psittacosis was made by 16S rRNA PCR using multiple primer sets and sequencing from liver. Psittacosis should be considered a differential diagnosis in domestic cats with intracellular bacterial hepatitis and interstitial pneumonia.
Subject(s)
Cat Diseases/diagnosis , Chlamydophila psittaci/isolation & purification , Psittacosis/veterinary , Animals , Cat Diseases/microbiology , Cats , Diagnosis, Differential , Liver/microbiology , Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary , Psittacosis/diagnosis , Psittacosis/microbiology , RNA, Bacterial/analysis , RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/analysisABSTRACT
Mycoplasma bovis is 1 of several bacterial pathogens associated with pneumonia in cattle. Its role in pneumonia of free-ranging ungulates has not been established. Over a 3-month period in early 2019, ¼60 free-ranging pronghorn with signs of respiratory disease died in northeast Wyoming, USA. A consistent finding in submitted carcasses was severe fibrinosuppurative pleuropneumonia and detection of M. bovis by PCR and immunohistochemical analysis. Multilocus sequence typing of isolates from 4 animals revealed that all have a deletion in 1 of the target genes, adh-1. A retrospective survey by PCR and immunohistochemical analysis of paraffin-embedded lung from 20 pronghorn that died with and without pneumonia during 2007-2018 yielded negative results. These findings indicate that a distinct strain of M. bovis was associated with fatal pneumonia in this group of pronghorn.
