Evaluating the effect of metronidazole plus amoxicillin-clavulanate versus amoxicillin-clavulanate alone in canine haemorrhagic diarrhoea: a randomised controlled trial in primary care practice.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the benefit of supplementing amoxicillin-clavulanic acid therapy with metronidazole in dogs presenting to a primary care veterinary practice with severe haemorrhagic diarrhoea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective randomised blinded trial on dogs presenting with haemorrhagic diarrhoea of less than 3 days duration to a primary care veterinary hospital and also requiring intravenous fluid therapy. Cases were randomised to receive either metronidazole or saline, in addition to standard supportive therapy consisting of amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, intravenous fluid therapy, buprenorphine and omeprazole. Treatment efficacy was measured by duration of hospitalisation and daily scoring of disease severity. RESULTS: Thirty-four cases successfully completed the trial. There was no significant difference in hospitalisation time between treatment groups (mean for dogs receiving metronidazole was 29.6 hours and for controls was 26.3 hours) nor in daily clinical scores. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This study strongly suggests that addition of metronidazole is not an essential addition to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid therapy for treatment of severe cases of haemorrhagic diarrhoea in dogs.

New viruses associated with canine gastroenteritis.

A number of novel viruses have been associated with canine gastroenteritis in recent years, from viral families as diverse as Caliciviridae and Picornaviridae to Parvoviridae and Circoviridae. The ability of many of these viruses to cause disease is uncertain, but epidemiological studies are continually adding to our knowledge of these potential pathogens. This review presents a summary of the latest research and current understanding of novel viruses associated with canine gastroenteritis.

Hepatitis E in southern Vietnam: Seroepidemiology in humans and molecular epidemiology in pigs.

Viral pathogens account for a significant proportion of the burden of emerging infectious diseases in humans. The Wellcome Trust-Vietnamese Initiative on Zoonotic Infections (WT-VIZIONS) is aiming to understand the circulation of viral zoonotic pathogens in animals that pose a potential risk to human health. Evidence suggests that human exposure and infections with hepatitis E virus (HEV) genotypes (GT) 3 and 4 results from zoonotic transmission. Hypothesising that HEV GT3 and GT4 are circulating in the Vietnamese pig population and can be transmitted to humans, we aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of HEV exposure in a population of farmers and the general population. We additionally performed sequence analysis of HEV in pig populations in the same region to address knowledge gaps regarding HEV circulation and to evaluate if pigs were a potential source of HEV exposure. We found a high prevalence of HEV GT3 viral RNA in pigs (19.1% in faecal samples and 8.2% in rectal swabs) and a high HEV seroprevalence in pig farmers (16.0%) and a hospital-attending population (31.7%) in southern Vietnam. The hospital population was recruited as a general-population proxy even though this particular population subgroup may introduce bias. The detection of HEV RNA in pigs indicates that HEV may be a zoonotic disease risk in this location, although a larger sample size is required to infer an association between HEV positivity in pigs and seroprevalence in humans.