Reports of neoplasms in Panthera species are increasing, but they are still an uncommon cause of disease and death in captive wild felids. The presence of two or more primary tumor in large felids is rarely reported, and there are no documented cases of ocular melanoma and mammary mucinous carcinoma in African lions.

A fatal epizootic of salmonellosis occurred in farmed juvenile American alligators in Louisiana. Six animals were examined. Gross lesions included severe fibrinonecrotizing enterocolitis, necrotizing splenitis, coelomic effusion, and perivisceral and pulmonary edema. Microscopic examination revealed severe necrotizing enterocolitis and splenitis with intralesional bacteria and pneumocyte necrosis with fibrin thrombi. Salmonella enterica serovar Pomona was isolated from intestine and lung. Clinical salmonellosis is a rare finding in reptiles and salmonellosis caused by S. Pomona is not previously reported in American alligators. Since S. Pomona is a commonly isolated Salmonella serotype from patients with reptile-associated salmonellosis in the United States, and since alligator meat is consumed and the skin is exported to numerous countries, risk of human and animal infection should be considered.

Concurrent activation of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) and blockade of Na⁺ pumps causes a targeted osmotic lysis (TOL) of carcinomas that over-express the VGSCs. Unfortunately, electrical current bypasses tumors or tumor sections because of the variable resistance of the extracellular microenvironment. This study assesses pulsed magnetic fields (PMFs) as a potential source for activating VGSCs to initiate TOL in vitro and in vivo as PMFs are unaffected by nonconductive tissues. In vitro, PMFs (0–80 mT, 10 msec pulses, 15 pps for 10 min) combined with digoxin-lysed (500 nM) MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells stimulus-dependently. Untreated, stimulation-only, and digoxin-only control cells did not lyse. MCF-10a normal breast cells were also unaffected. MDA-MB-231 cells did not lyse in a Na⁺-free buffer. In vivo, 30 min of PMF stimulation of MDA-MB-231 xenografts in J/Nu mice or 4T1 homografts in BALB/c mice, concurrently treated with 7 mg/kg digoxin reduced tumor size by 60–100%. Kidney, spleen, skin and muscle from these animals were unaffected. Stimulation-only and digoxin-only controls were similar to untreated tumors. BALB/C mice with 4T1 homografts survived significantly longer than mice in the three control groups. The data presented is evidence that the PMFs to activate VGSCs in TOL provide sufficient energy to lyse highly malignant cells in vitro and to reduce tumor growth of highly malignant grafts and improve host survival in vivo, thus supporting targeted osmotic lysis of cancer as a possible method for treating late-stage carcinomas without compromising noncancerous tissues.

A concurrent outbreak of infection by canine parvovirus 2b (CPV-2b) and Clostridium difficile producing A and/or B toxins occurred in Asian small-clawed otters (Amblonyx cinereus). The 5 clinically affected otters were 6- to 24-mo-old intact females that had severe diarrhea, dehydration, were acutely comatose, and died 1–4 d after the onset of clinical signs. Postmortem examination was performed in 3 of 7 otters. Macroscopically, the small intestine was diffusely reddened and contained red-to-brown, malodorous, watery digesta without formed feces (3 of 3). Histologic examination identified loss of enterocytes and necrosis of crypt epithelial cells. Denuded villi were often covered by mixed bacterial colonies with a predominance of gram-positive cocci to short rods in addition to larger gram-positive and -negative rods. There was also splenic lymphoid follicle depletion (2 of 3). Immunofluorescence assay revealed CPV antigen in enterocytes (2 of 3), mesenteric lymph nodes (3 of 3), and spleen (1 of 3). Immunohistochemistry revealed CPV antigen in enterocytes, lymphocytes, and dendritic cells of the Peyer patches and spleen (3 of 3), and lingual epithelial cells (1 of 2). CPV was isolated from tissues from 2 of 3 otters, and DNA sequencing identified CPV-2b for the 1 isolate tested. C. difficile producing A and/or B toxins were identified in the intestinal content by ELISA (3 of 3). To our knowledge, an outbreak of CPV-2b infection and C. difficile with clinically significant gastrointestinal disease has not been described previously in otters. The source of the viral infections remains unknown; however, these agents should be considered in otters and other mesocarnivores with similar clinical and pathologic findings.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) virus is the most common infectious cause of uveitis in cats. Confirmatory diagnosis is usually only reached at postmortem examination. The relationship between the histologic inflammatory pattern, which depends on the stage of the disease, and the likelihood of detection of the viral antigen and/or RNA has not been investigated. We hypothesized that viral detection rate by either immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization or RT-qPCR is dependent upon the predominant type of uveal inflammatory response (i.e., pyogranulomatous vs. plasmacytic). Thus, the aims of this study were to evaluate cases of FIP-induced uveitis, localize the viral antigen and RNA, and assess the relationship between the inflammatory pattern (macrophage- vs. plasma cell-rich) and the likelihood of detecting the FIP antigen and/or RNA. We evaluated 30 cats with FIP-induced uveitis. The viral antigen and/or RNA were detected within uveal macrophages in 11/30 cases, of which 8 tested positive by RT-qPCR. Correlation analysis determined a weak to moderate but significant negative correlation between the degree of plasmacytic uveal inflammation and the likelihood of detecting the FIP antigen and RNA. This study suggests that predominance of plasmacytic inflammation in cases of FIP uveitis reduces the odds of a confirmatory diagnosis through the viral detection methods available.