2019 - 88 (5)

A short description is given of different ways of using oxen, dogs, draught- and cart horses for traction,mainly in agriculture, in Western Europe in recent centuries. The primitive way of hauling withone animal evolved to complex systems with up to six horses for one carriage. The art attained a stateof perfection around 1940-1950, before disappearing rapidly and completely, except for recreative useand in royal celebrations.

Boid inclusion body disease is a worldwide occurring disease in boas and pythons. The identityof the etiological agent of the disease remained elusive for several decades. Recently however, contemporarydiagnostic methods and experimental studies delivered compelling proof that a group ofdivergent reptarenaviruses are the causative agents of BIBD. In contrast to what was initially thought,boid snakes can be persistent carriers of the viral disease without showing clinical signs. Althoughthe cause of BIBD has been demonstrated, the diagnosis of BIBD may be challenging depending onthe involved snake species, and the differentiation between comorbidities related to BIBD and clinicaldisease caused by concurrent disorders remains problematic. In this article, the course of BIBDinfection in boid snakes, the major differences that are encountered towards the diagnosis of BIBD inpythons versus boas and the overall management of BIBD in captive snake collections are described.

In this report, a ten-year-old gelding with immune-mediated hemolytic anemia associated with chronic fibrosing mediastinitis of unknown origin is described. The patient suffered from chronic weight loss and intermittent diarrhea for already several months. He was presented with severe anemia, anorexia and fever of a 24-hour onset. A direct Coombs test was highly positive for IgG auto-agglutination. No evidence of an underlying process was found on clinical examination. Post-mortem examination revealed green liquid material containing food particles in the cranial mediastinum and histology suggested chronic fibrosing mediastinitis. Even though perforation of the esophagus is a plausible cause, no signs of esophageal rupture were noted on macroscopic examination. This case shows that non-responsive, immune-mediated hemolytic anemia can be due to an undetected underlying disease, such as chronic mediastinitis.

In humans, electrical and contractile reverse remodelling following restoration of sinusrhythm (SR) after a prolonged period of spontaneous atrial fibrillation (AF), requires severalweeks. There is little known about this phenomenon in horses.In the present study, six healthy horses were instrumented with a neurostimulator and a pacemakerto maintain AF for four months by intermittent burst pacing and to study atrial andventricular electrophysiology. AF became persistent in all horses after two to six weeks of burstpacing. Before, during and after the AF period, parameters, such as the atrial fibrillation cyclelength, the right atrial and ventricular refractory period and vulnerability, such as inducingatrial arrythmias, atrial tachyarrythmias or maintaining AF, were determined. Two-dimensionalechocardiography was used to measure atrial and ventricular contractility expressed as fractionalshortening and size expressed as diameter and area.In two of the six horses, the procedure was discontinued due to an increased threshold (1horse) and due to infection at the level of the pacemaker pocket (1 horse). In the four remaininghorses, significant electrical and contractile remodelling compared to baseline values was observedfrom 48 hours onwards after AF induction. Upon restoration of SR with quindine sulfate,all electrical and contractile values returned to normal within one to two months. No ventricularremodelling was observed.Four months of pacing-induced AF resulted in electrical and contractile remodelling and reverseremodelling. The results suggest that pacing-induced chronic AF does not cause permanentdamage and suggest that a resting period of six to eight weeks before returning to training mightbe beneficial.

Digital dermatitis is the most common cause of lameness worldwide in dairy cattle. In thisfinal part of a twin paper, treatment options and strategies to prevent digital dermatitis are reviewed.There is a wide range of different treatments available but none of them can completelycure the animal. Footbaths and applying high standards for hygiene are ways to keep this diseaseunder control.Moreover, the link to other (human and non-human) treponemal diseases will be discussed.In humans, treponemes are involved in periodontal disease, syphilis and many other illnesses.The dermatological manifestation of some of these human diseases such as yaws have a similarappearance like acute digital dermatitis. Digital dermatitis-like lesions have been described ingoats, sheep and elks. The typically isolated Treponema spp. can also be found in equine proliferativepododermatitis affected feet. Besides in digital dermatitis, these bacteria can be found inbovine ulcerative mammary dermatitis and badly healing lesions in cattle.

Digital dermatitis or Mortellaro’s disease is a highly prevalent bovine dermatological disordersituated in the foot region that causes lameness and impairs animal welfare.In this first part of a twin paper, the role of genetics, immunity, bacteria and hygiene in thedevelopment of this complex disease are described. There is still no consensus regarding the roleof the immune system and the typically isolated Treponema spp. in the pathogenesis of digitaldermatitis. Moisture and dirt are undoubtedly important for disease transmission in and betweendairy farms; furthermore, the genetic component of the disease will be more deeply discussed.