Nerve sheath tumors are a group of tumors originating from Schwann cells, fibroblasts, and perineurial cells. In veterinary pathology, the terminology for nerve sheath tumors remains inconsistent, and many pathologists follow the human classification of such tumors in practice. Immunohistochemistry plays an important role in the diagnosis of nerve sheath tumors, but specific immunohistochemical and molecular biomarkers are lacking. In our study, we histopathologically reevaluated 79 canine nerve sheath tumors and assessed their reactivity for the immunohistochemical markers Sox10, claudin-1, GFAP, CNPase, and Ki-67. Based on the results, we classified the tumors according to the most recent human classification. Twelve cases were diagnosed as benign nerve sheath tumors, including six neurofibromas, three nerve sheath myxomas, two hybrid nerve sheath tumors (perineurioma/neurofibroma and perineurioma/schwannoma), and one schwannoma. Sixty-seven tumors were malignant nerve sheath tumors, including fifty-six conventional, four perineural, one epithelioid malignant nerve sheath tumor, and six malignant nerve sheath tumors with divergent differentiation. We believe that with the application of the proposed panel, an updated classification of canine nerve sheath tumors could largely follow the recent human WHO classification of tumors of the cranial and paraspinal nerves, but prospective studies would be needed to assess its prognostic value.

In humans, transmission of bacteria causing fatal sepsis in the neonates through mother’s milk has been reported. In dogs, it is believed that bacteria from canine milk are not the primary cause of neonatal infections. Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is colonizing the skin and mucocutaneous junctions in adult dogs and can act as an opportunistic pathogen. This bacterium was previously isolated from the canine milk and, although, its transmission from the dam’s milk to the newborn puppies causing a neonatal sepsis was suggested, this hypothesis has not been confirmed. A 4.5-year-old healthy Boston terrier dam had an elective cesarean section, delivering five normal puppies and one dead runt. Next day, two puppies developed pustules on their legs and around the muzzle. After two more days, strings of blood were noticed in the stool of the biggest puppy that suddenly died later that night. The same day, blood became visible in the feces of all other puppies. Necropsy of the dead puppy revealed a distended abdomen, catarrhal gastroenteritis with lymphadenopathy, dark red and slightly firm lung, mild dilatation of the right heart chamber and congestion of the liver, spleen, pancreas and meninges. The thoracic cavity contained white-yellow slightly opaque exudate, and there was transudate in the abdominal cavity. Histopathology revealed an acute interstitial pneumonia and multifocal myocardial necrosis with mineralization. Bacteriology of the internal organs, body cavity effusions of the dead puppy and dam’s milk revealed a diffuse growth of S. pseudintermedius in pure culture. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) revealed that all isolates belonged to the sequence type 241 and differed in 2–5 single nucleotide polymorphisms; thus, the epidemiological link between the outbreak-associated isolates was confirmed. This is the first report of a confirmed transmission of S. pseudintermedius through dam’s milk causing a neonatal sepsis in a puppy after an elective cesarean section. The epidemiological link between S. pseudintermedius isolates obtained from dam’s milk and internal organs of the affected puppy was confirmed by WGS. Our findings indicate that milk of healthy dams can serve as a reservoir of bacteria that can cause fatal sepsis in the newborn puppies.

Mycotoxins are common fungal secondary metabolites in both animal feed and human food, representing widespread toxic contaminants that cause various adverse effects. Co-contamination with different mycotoxins is frequent; therefore, this study focused on feed contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins, namely, deoxynivalenol (5.08 mg/kg), zearalenone (0.09 mg/kg), and fusaric acid (21.6 mg/kg). Their effects on the liver of gilts and their piglets were chosen as the research subject as pigs are one of the most sensitive animal species that are also physiologically very similar to humans. The gilts were fed the experimental diet for 54 ± 1 day, starting late in their pregnancy and continuing until roughly a week after weaning of their piglets. Livers of gilts and their piglets were assessed for different histopathological changes, apoptosis, and proliferation activity of hepatocytes. On histopathology, gilts fed the experimental diet had a statistically significant increase in hepatocellular necrosis and apoptosis (p = 0.0318) as well as sinusoidal leukocytosis with inflammatory infiltrates of hepatic lobules (p = 0.0004). The amount of interlobular connective tissue in the liver of experimental gilts was also significantly decreased (p = 0.0232), implying a disruption in the formation of fibrous connective tissue. Apoptosis of hepatocytes and of cells in hepatic sinusoids, further assessed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL) assay, showed a statistically significant increase (p = 0.0224 and p = 0.0007, respectively). No differences were observed in piglet livers. These results indicated that Fusarium mycotoxins elicited increased apoptosis, necrosis, and inflammation in the liver of gilts, but caused no effects on the liver of piglets at these concentrations.

In this paper, we provide an overview of the causes of death of Alpine chamois (Rupicapra r. rupicapra) diagnosed in the national passive health surveillance of chamois in Slovenia. From 2000 to 2020, 284 free-ranging chamois provided by hunters were necropsied at the Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Depending on the results of complete necropsy, histopathological, bacteriological, parasitological, and virological examinations, a descriptive data analysis was performed. The most common causes of death in chamois were infectious diseases (82.2%), followed by non-infectious diseases (11.8%). Of all the causes of death, parasitic infections accounted for 70.3%, trauma for 9.7%, and bacterial infections for 9.3% of all cases. Less common diseases were viral infections, neoplasms, winter starvation, and metabolic disorders.