Imaging characteristics and treatment of a penetrating brain injury caused by an oropharyngeal foreign body in a dog

A 4-year-old Border collie was presented with one episode of collapse, altered mentation, and a suspected pharyngeal stick injury. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography showed a linear foreign body penetrating the right oropharynx, through the foramen ovale and the brain parenchyma. The foreign body was surgically removed and medical treatment initiated. Complete resolution of clinical signs was noted at recheck 8 weeks later. Repeat MRI showed chronic secondary changes in the brain parenchyma. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of the advanced imaging findings and successful treatment of a penetrating oropharyngeal intracranial foreign body in a dog

Disease Dynamics and Bird Migration—Linking Mallards Anas platyrhynchos and Subtype Diversity of the Influenza A Virus in Time and Space

The mallard Anas platyrhynchos is a reservoir species for influenza A virus in the northern hemisphere, with particularly high prevalence rates prior to as well as during its prolonged autumn migration. It has been proposed that the virus is brought from the breeding grounds and transmitted to conspecifics during subsequent staging during migration, and so a better understanding of the natal origin of staging ducks is vital to deciphering the dynamics of viral movement pathways. Ottenby is an important stopover site in southeast Sweden almost halfway downstream in the major Northwest European flyway, and is used by millions of waterfowl each year. Here, mallards were captured and sampled for influenza A virus infection, and positive samples were subtyped in order to study possible links to the natal area, which were determined by a novel approach combining banding recovery data and isotopic measurements (δ2H) of feathers grown on breeding grounds. Geographic assignments showed that the core natal areas of studied mallards were in Estonia, southern and central Finland, and northwestern Russia. This study demonstrates a clear temporal succession of latitudes of natal origin during the course of autumn migration. We also demonstrate a corresponding and concomitant shift in virus subtypes. Acknowledging that these two different patterns were based in part upon different data, a likely interpretation worth further testing is that the early arriving birds with more proximate origins have different influenza A subtypes than the more distantly originating late autumn birds. If true, this knowledge would allow novel insight into the origins and transmission of the influenza A virus among migratory hosts previously unavailable through conventional approaches

CANINE DISTEMPER VIRUS-ASSOCIATED ENCEPHALITIS IN FREE-LIVING LYNX (LYNX CANADENSIS) AND BOBCATS (LYNX RUFUS) OF EASTERN CANADA

Between 1993 and 1999, encephalitis caused by morbillivirus was diagnosed by immunohistochemistry and histology in six lynx (Lynx canadensis) and one bobcat (Lynx rufus) in the eastern Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Five of the six cases in Lynx occurred within an 11-mo period in 1996-97. A second bobcat with encephalitis caused by unidentified protozoa and a nematode larva also had immunohistochemical evidence of infection by morbillivirus. The virus was identified as canine distemper virus (CDV) by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide, sequencing in four of five animals from which frozen tissue samples were available, and it was isolated in cell culture from one of them. To our knowledge, this is the first report of disease caused by CDV in free-living fields in North America

CANINE DISTEMPER VIRUS-ASSOCIATED ENCEPHALITIS IN FREE-LIVING LYNX (LYNX CANADENSIS) AND BOBCATS (LYNX RUFUS) OF EASTERN CANADA

Between 1993 and 1999, encephalitis caused by morbillivirus was diagnosed by immunohistochemistry and histology in six lynx (Lynx canadensis) and one bobcat (Lynx rufus) in the eastern Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Five of the six cases in Lynx occurred within an 11-mo period in 1996-97. A second bobcat with encephalitis caused by unidentified protozoa and a nematode larva also had immunohistochemical evidence of infection by morbillivirus. The virus was identified as canine distemper virus (CDV) by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide, sequencing in four of five animals from which frozen tissue samples were available, and it was isolated in cell culture from one of them. To our knowledge, this is the first report of disease caused by CDV in free-living fields in North America

CANINE DISTEMPER VIRUS–ASSOCIATED ENCEPHALITIS IN FREE-LIVING LYNX (LYNX CANADENSIS) AND BOBCATS (LYNX RUFUS) OF EASTERN CANADA

Between 1993 and 1999, encephalitis caused by morbillivirus was diagnosed by immunohistochemistry and histology in six lynx (Lynx canadensis) and one bobcat (Lynx rufus) in the eastern Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Five of the six cases in Lynx occurred within an 11-mo period in 1996-97. A second bobcat with encephalitis caused by unidentified protozoa and a nematode larva also had immunohistochemical evidence of infection by morbillivirus. The virus was identified as canine distemper virus (CDV) by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide, sequencing in four of five animals from which frozen tissue samples were available, and it was isolated in cell culture from one of them. To our knowledge, this is the first report of disease caused by CDV in free-living fields in North America