Veterinary Education and Training on Non-Traditional Companion Animals, Exotic, Zoo, and Wild Animals: Concepts Review and Challenging Perspective on Zoological Medicine.

The role of veterinarians is becoming more significant and necessary to support the welfare and health not only of non-traditional companion animals and wildlife animals, but also of humans and the environment. The importance of the One Health/One World concept and its social impact is increasing significantly, accompanied by the notoriety of new emerging and reemerging zoonoses. This paper aims to review and anchor the main concepts and professional applications of zoological medicine, which has been extensively discussed and adapted in recent decades. In addition, we analyse the main social demands, training, and educational needs and the perception of veterinary professionals relating to this specialised veterinary discipline. Our final goal is to reinforce the use of the term zoological medicine and contribute to highlight the need to foster and underpin specific educational policies and programs on this matter in the veterinary curricula. Zoological medicine should be the appropriate and agreed-upon term in the academic language concerning the veterinary medicine of pets, wild, or zoo species, excluding traditional domestic animals, and integrating the principles of ecology and conservation, applied to both natural and artificial environments. This discipline has suffered an intense evolution covering applications in private clinics, zoos, bioparks, and wildlife. All this implies current and future challenges for the veterinary profession that can only be addressed with greater and better attention from multiple perspectives, especially the education and training of professionals to improve and specialise in their professional scope of services.

Infection due to Buteo buteo herpesvirus in a common buzzard (Buteo buteo insularum).

This study aimed to document the pathological findings observed in a common buzzard (Buteo buteo insularum) from Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Atlantic Ocean), naturally infected with Buteo buteo herpesvirus (HV). Local authorities found the common buzzard alive, but it died after 10 days of specialized veterinary care. Postmortem investigation, including complete gross and histologic examination, immunohistochemistry, microbiology, and PCR, was performed. The animal presented necrotizing heterophilic and histiocytic bilateral conjunctivitis, stomatitis, pharyngitis, rhinitis, and sinusitis with secondary bacterial and fungal infections. Frequent eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were observed in the oral mucosa and esophagus epithelium. HV proteins and DNA were detected in tissues from this animal. The sequences obtained from the PCR product were identical to the reported sequences of Buteo buteo HV.

Toothed Whales Have Black Neurons in the Blue Spot.

Neuromelanin (NM) is a dark polymer pigment that is located mostly in the human substantia nigra, and in the locus ceruleus, referred to as "the blue spot". NM increases linearly with age, and has been described mainly in the human brain; however, it also occurs in the neurons of monkeys, horses, giraffes, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, rats, and even in frogs. While in most of these mammals NM shows the histochemical and ultrastructural features typical of lipofuscins, human NM is confined within cytoplasmic organelles that are surrounded by a double membrane, suggesting an autophagic origin. In a study on the morphology of the locus ceruleus of the family Delphinidae, the presence of a variable quantity of NM in the interior of locus ceruleus neurons was observed for the first time; meanwhile, nothing is known about its ultrastructure and composition. Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated in two toothed whales-an Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis; family Delphinidae) and a Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris; family Ziphiidae)-the presence of melanin granules associated with lipid droplets and membranes that were very similar to that of human NM. The relationship between NM and neuronal vulnerability must be studied in depth, and cetaceans may offer a new natural-spontaneous comparative model for the study of NM and its implication in neurodegenerative diseases.

Budd-Chiari-like pathology in dolphins.

Nearly two decades ago, pathologic examination results suggested that acoustic factors, such as mid-frequency active naval military sonar (MFAS) could be the cause of acute decompression-like sickness in stranded beaked whales. Acute systemic gas embolism in these whales was reported together with enigmatic cystic liver lesions (CLL), characterized by intrahepatic encapsulated gas-filled cysts, tentatively interpreted as "gas-bubble" lesions in various other cetacean species. Here we provide a pathologic reinterpretation of CLL in odontocetes. Among 1,200 cetaceans necropsied, CLL were only observed in four striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), with a low prevalence (2%, N = 179). Together, our data strongly suggest that CLL are the result of the combination of a pre-existing or concomitant hepatic vascular disorder superimposed and exacerbated by gas bubbles, and clearly differ from acute systemic gas embolism in stranded beaked whales that is linked to MFAS. Budd-Chiari-like syndrome in dolphins is hypothesized based on the present pathologic findings. Nonetheless, further researched is warranted to determine precise etiopathogenesis(es) and contributing factors for CLL in cetaceans.

Ultrastructural characterization of normal Merkel cells in the dog.

BACKGROUND: Involvement of Merkel cells (MKs) in different cutaneous diseases as well as in the growth, differentiation and homeostasis of the skin has been previously documented. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: The aim was to assess the ultrastructural features of MKs in canine skin, including morphometrics, highlighting their similarities with and differences from those described for other mammals. ANIMALS: Hard palate, nasal planum, lower lip and whisker pad samples were taken from two healthy young dogs destined for academic purposes. METHODS: Ultrathin sections of samples fixed in osmium tetroxide and embedded in Epon 812 resin were stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate and examined using a JEOL JEM 2010 transmission electron microscope. RESULTS: Ultrastructural characteristics included the following: (i) arrangement in clusters in the basal layer of the epidermis, oral mucosa and external follicular root sheath; (ii) inconstant link with nerve terminal; (iii) oval (10.27 ± 1.64 µm major axis) cell shape with large lobulated nuclei (5.98 ± 1.16 µm major axis); (iv) spine-like and thick cytoplasmic processes interdigitating with surrounding keratinocytes; (v) presence of desmosomes in the cell body or at the base of spine-like processes attaching to neighbouring keratinocytes; and (vi) cytoplasm containing loosely arranged intermediate filaments (10.04 ± 1.17 nm) and numerous dense-core granules (100.1 ± 17.12 nm) arranged in the basal portion of the cytoplasm. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: This study provides the first complete description of the ultrastructural characteristics of MKs in the dog, enhancing our knowledge of the skin structure in this species and providing a basis for future physiological and pathological studies of the role of these cells in normal and damaged canine tissues.

Chronological and immunohistochemical characterization of the mammary immunoinflammatory response in experimental caprine contagious agalactia.

To explore the pathogenesis of caprine contagious agalactia (CA), we assessed the ability of Mycoplasma agalactiae (Ma) to modulate the immune system in host tissues by immunohistochemically and chronologically characterizing the main cell subsets present during the mammary immunoinflammatory response. Fifteen lactating goats were inoculated with 10(10) colony-forming units (cfu) of Ma and killed 5, 15 or 45 days post-inoculation (dpi). Blood was taken before necropsy to determine antibodies and milk to determine mycoplasma number. Cells in mammary tissue expressing lysozyme, myeloid-histiocyte antigen (Mac387), major histocompatibility complex class II antigen, immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, and CD3, CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes were determined by immunohistochemistry. Results indicate an innate immune response in animals sacrificed at 5dpi, characterized by an abundance of Mac387+ and lysozyme+ cells, that was unable to block or control Ma infection. Elevated numbers of all the cell subsets of the specific immune response (MHC-II+, IgG+, IgA+, CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ cells) were observed during the subacute stage of the inflammatory process, represented by the 15dpi group. However, these findings could not be correlated with an intense antibody response in blood. The chronic stage of the inflammatory process observed in the goats killed at 45dpi was mainly characterized by expansion of the CD8 compartment at the expense of the CD4 subset leading to a reduced CD4/CD8 ratio. These results contribute to establishing the basic morphological and immunohistochemical characterization of the local immune response against Ma in the goat's mammary gland.