Erysipeloid lesions caused by Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae in a dog: clinical and histopathological findings, molecular diagnosis and treatment.

BACKGROUND: Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae is a widespread Gram-positive, nonsporulating rod bacterium predominantly associated with skin disease in swine and cetaceans. Cutaneous lesions have yet to be described in dogs. OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical presentation, molecular and histopathological diagnosis, and treatment of a case of erysipeloid caused by E. rhusiopathiae in a dog. ANIMALS: A 6-month-old spayed female standard poodle dog presented with lethargy, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. Skin lesions appeared 20 days post first examination. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Complete blood count, serum chemistry profile, urinalysis, urine culture, blood culture, computed topography, forelimb radiography, joint and cerebrospinal fluid aspiration were performed; samples were collected for skin cytological evaluation, culture and histopathological analysis. RESULTS: Blood cultures yielded Gram-positive, catalase-negative bacilli. Histopathological evaluation of skin biopsies revealed lymphoplasmacytic, neutrophilic and histiocytic perivascular and periadnexal dermatitis, and vasculitis. Cutaneous and blood PCR and sequencing of 16S rRNA identified the bacteria as E. rhusiopathiae. Clinical resolution was observed following the use of of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and ciprofloxacin therapies. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first confirmed case of erysipeloid caused by E. rhusiopathiae in a dog. Clinical resolution was attained with the extended use of antibiotics. After 13 months, no clinical signs had returned.

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae recruits host plasminogen via the major protective antigen SpaA.

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae is the causative agent of animal erysipelas and human erysipeloid. Some pathogenic bacteria are able to recruit host plasminogen and then use the plasminogen system for migration across tissue barriers or for nutritional demands during infection. However, there is no study on E. rhusiopathiae recruitment of plasminogen. SpaA has long been known to be a major protective antigen of E. rhusiopathiae, but its roles in virulence have not yet been well clarified. The aim of this study was to detect the activity of E. rhusiopathiae to recruit host plasminogen and evaluate the ability of SpaA to act as a receptor in the recruitment process. It was found that E. rhusiopathiae could recruit host plasminogen. SpaA could specifically bind host plasminogen. Anti-SpaA serum could significantly decrease the activity of E. rhusiopathiae to recruit plasminogen. In addition, this binding activity was lysine dependent. In conclusion, E. rhusiopathiae was able to recruit host plasminogen via SpaA. To our knowledge, this is the first report on E. rhusiopathiae recruitment of host plasminogen and the receptor in the process.

A case of apparent canine erysipeloid associated with Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae bacteraemia.

BACKGROUND: Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae is a Gram-positive facultative anaerobe found worldwide and is most commonly associated with skin disease in swine, while anecdotal reports of cases in dogs have been associated with endocarditis. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: Clinicians should consider systemic infectious diseases as a potential cause of erythematous skin lesions. ANIMALS: A 5-year-old female spayed Labrador retriever presented with lethargy, anorexia and erythematous skin lesions while receiving immunosuppressive therapy for immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia. Four days prior to presentation, the dog had chewed on a raw turkey carcase. METHODS: Complete blood count, serum chemistry profile, urinalysis and blood cultures. RESULTS: Blood cultures yielded a pure growth of E. rhusiopathiae serotype 1b. Amoxicillin 22 mg/kg orally twice daily for 2 weeks and discontinuation of azathioprine resulted in remission of fever and skin lesions. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: This report is the first documentation, to the best of the authors' knowledge, of Erysipelothrix infection, a known zoonosis, in an immunosuppressed dog, highlighting the need for infectious disease monitoring in patients receiving such therapy. This information may also help educate veterinarians to include Erysipelothrix infection as a differential diagnosis in dogs with fever and skin lesions, as well as the role of blood cultures in diagnosing this disease.

Erysipeloid.

We report a case of erysipeloid in a 73-year-old woman. The disease was characterized clinically by erythematous and erosive lesions on three fingers of the left hand. Diagnosis was made based on the patient's occupation (housewife), history of previous traumatic contact with a scorpion fish, typical inflammatory lesions located on one hand, lack of severe systemic features, mild laboratory abnormalities and rapid remission after specific treatment.

Lesión eritematoviolácea en la pierna de un investigador en contactocon cerdos / Erythematous-violaceous lesion on the leg of a researcher in contact with swines

No disponible

No disponible

[Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae--a cause of erysipeloid and endocarditis]. / Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae--årsak til erysipeloid og endokarditt.

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae is widespread among many species of animals including fish. Erysipeloid is the most common infection caused by this bacterium in man; systemic infection, with endocarditis, is rare. Most of the affected patients risk exposure to the organism at work. Two patients with E. rhusiopathiae infections are described; one with erysipeloid after slaughtering a deer, the other with fatal endocarditis after gutting an eel. Erysipeloid may be confused with "seal finger", but this disease probably has a different microbial etiology and requires different antibiotic treatment.

Occurrence of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae on pork and in pig slurry, and the distribution of specific antibodies in abattoir workers.

Strains of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae isolated at 19 pig farms serving a certain abattoir, and on pork and in workers of this abattoir were studied. Mouse-pathogenic E. rhusiopathiae was found in pig slurry from two farms (11%). The strains belonged to serotypes 7 and 16 (both from the same farm) or were untypable. In pig slurry from the abattoir lairage only serotype 2 strains were found and all were pathogenic to mice. Mouse-pathogenic E. rhusiopathiae strains of serotype 2 were also recovered from 25 pork lions (25%). A mouse-pathogenic E. rhusiopathiae (serotype 2) strain was isolated from one of the 16 hand infections of slaughterhouse workers. The E. rhusiopathiae strains were phenotypically grouped by the API 50 CH system. Variations were demonstrated for the different serotypes. In 20 of 138 workers antibodies against E. rhusiopathiae were found; 14 had increased levels of IgG antibodies, seven had increased levels of IgM antibodies and one had an increased level of both.

[Microbiological and immunodiagnostic studies in experimental erysipeloid]. / Mikrobiologicheskie i immunodiagnosticheskie issledovaniia pri ékpserimental'nom érizipeloide.

The use of the passive hemagglutination test with a set of antigenic and antibody erythrocytic diagnostic reagents made it possible to detect antibodies to Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae specific and type specific antigens in the blood serum of infected mice and to reveal the presence of these antigens in the internal organs of the animals. After a considerable increase of the infective dose a higher level of contamination and the retention of the antigens in the internal organs were observed, while the activity of specific antibodies in the blood serum decreased.

[Erysipeloid as an occupational disease of workers in shoe enterprises]. / Erizipeloid kak professional'noe zabolevanie rabochikh obuvnykh predpriiatii.

An outbreak of erysipeloid among the workers of a shoe factory is described. The spread of infection occurred due to contact with infected raw materials, which was confirmed by the isolation of Erysipelotrix rhusiopathiae from washings made from chrome and Russia leather supplied by different tanneries, as well as from casein glue. The raw materials could be additionally infected by rodents, in particular by common voles; the above-mentioned infective agent had been repeatedly isolated from these animals on the territory of this region. Leather was also infected in the process of soaking: the infective agent was isolated from the water of soaking baths. For the first time the routes of the spread of erysipeloid infection among shoe factory workers were bacteriologically confirmed. The recommended complex of sanitary, medical and antiepidemic measures led to the liquidation of the outbreak and thus proved to be effective. The authors draw the attention of epidemiologists, sanitary inspectors, occupational pathologists and heads of medical centers at shoe factories to the necessity of preventing the spread of occupational erysipeloid infection among the workers, as well as to the necessity for dermatologists, surgeons and infectionists, most frequently dealing with erysipeloid patients, to be correctly oriented in respect to this infection.

[Erysipeloid on the islands of the Ohhotsk Sea. 2. Landscape types of the natural foci of erysipeloid]. / Ob erizipeloide na ostrovakh Okhotskogo moria. Soobshchenie 2. Landshaftnye tipy prirodnykh ochagov erizipeloida.

Cases of skin (skin-artericular) form of erysipeloid were recorded in the islands of the Sea of Okhotsk. The natural foci of the causative agent of this infection were polyhostal and polyvectoral in character. The causative agent of erysipeloid exists among the animals habitating on land and sea. Mass species of animals characteristic of the island landscape served as the sources of infection. Their four landscape types (mountaineous-taiga, of sea coast and rocks, anthropurgic settlement, and of water bodies--salt and freshwater) were preliminarily distinguished by the combination of biocenological, epidemiological, and epizootological peculiarities of natural erysipeloid foci.

[Erysipeloid on the islands of the Sea of Okhotsk. I. The sources and vectors of the causative agent of erysipeloid]. / Ob érizipeloide na ostrovakh Okhotskogo moria. Soobshchenie I. Istochniki i perenoschiki vozbuditelia érizipeloida

The foci of the causative agent of erysipeloid at the islands of the Okhotsk sea were of the polyvector and polyhostal character. There were recorded 92 species of the naturally infected by the erysipeloid causative agent invertebrate inhabitants of the sea, fish, amphibia, reptilia, birds, mammals and ectoparasites of the warm-blooded animals. Gamazoid and ixodes ticks, mosquitoes, horse-flies and flees were found to be naturally infected with erysipelotrix. Ixodes persulcatus were found to be capable of infecting albino mice during blood sucking.