Rhodococcus equi okozta tályogképződés és vérfertőzés macskában - Esetismertetés

Abstract

SUMMARY The authors report a case of Rhodococcus equi induced disease in a 3.5 month old female Birman cat. The animal showed severe respiratory symptoms few days after the purchase. On the gross pathological examination two abscesses with a diameter of 2 cm and without a wall were found in the mediastinum and in the right caudal lung lobe. The peribronchiolar lymph nodes and the liver were enlarged, and several greyish-white foci with a diameter of 1-2 mm were evident in the liver. With histological examination neutrophilic granulocytes and large number of macrophages were present in the abscesses. Pyogranulomatous inflammation was observed in spleen, peribronchiolar lymph nodes, and the lungs, and foci of necrotic inflammation were found in the liver. Gram positive cocci were detected in the abscesses, peribronchiolar lymph nodes, spleen, lungs and liver, which proved to be VapA negative R. equi, using immunohystochemistry. High number of R. equi colonies was cultured from spleen and liver, and the strain was identified as intermediately virulent with PCR method. Feline panleucopenia, feline leucosis and feline immunodeficiency viruses were not found. To the author’s knowledge this is the first case to detect intermediately virulent R. equi in an affected cat. This is also the first case that R. equi induced disease was found in a species other than horse in Hungary.