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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.

In the second part of this review article , the diagnostic aspects of thyroid scintigraphy arediscussed, with major emphasis on hyperthyroidism, followed by an overview of radioiodinetreatment.

In the first part of this review article, thyroid anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology arereviewed to continue more specifically on hyperthyroidism, the most common thyroid disorderin cats. The diagnostic work-up of this disorder is discussed with emphasis on thyroid glandimaging. Scintigraphy is most commonly used and best suited to assess thyroid function, whichwill be discussed extensively in the second part of this review article. All other available imagingmodalities do not offer a functional assessment and are therefore of limited use in the diagnosisand evaluation of hyperthyroidism.

A Belgian population of ten breeds with a low to moderately low genetic diversity or whichare relatively popular in Belgium, i.e. Bichon frise, Bloodhound, Bouvier des Flandres, Boxer,Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Irish setter, Papillon, Rottweiler, Golden retriever and Labradorretriever, was genotyped for all potentially relevant disease-causing variants known at thestart of the study. In this way, the frequency was estimated for 26 variants in order to improvebreeding advice. Disorders with a frequency high enough to recommend routine genotyping inbreeding programs are (1) degenerative myelopathy for the Bloodhound, (2) arrhythmogenicright ventricular cardiomyopathy and degenerative myelopathy for Boxers, (3) episodic fallingsyndrome and macrothrombocytopenia for the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, (4) progressiveretinal atrophy rod cone dysplasia 4 for the Irish setter (5) Golden retriever progressive retinalatrophy 1 for the Golden retriever and (6) exercise induced collapse and progressive rod-conedegeneration for the Labrador retriever. To the authors’ knowledge, in this study, the presenceof a causal mutation for a short tail in the Bouvier des Flandres is described for the first time.

Om gerichter fokadvies te kunnen geven, werd de frequentie geschat van alle ziekteveroorzakendemutaties die bekend waren bij de start van de studie en potentieel relevant zijn voor een aantal hondenrassendie relatief populair zijn of waarvan de genetische diversiteit in België laag tot middelmatig laag is. Deresultaten voor de Duitse herder, Mechelse herder, Lakense herder, groenendaeler, Tervurense herder,Australische herder en bordercollie worden hier besproken. Aandoeningen met een frequentie hooggenoeg om deze routinematig te genotyperen voor fokprogramma’s zijn (1) “multidrug resistance 1”en “hereditary cataract” voor de Australische herder, (2) degeneratieve myelopathie voor de Duitseherder, de Mechelse herder en de groenendaeler en (3) “collie eye anomaly” voor de bordercollie. Dehyperuricosurie-mutatie, beschreven bij de Duitse herder, werd in deze studie niet aangetroffen bij ditras, maar werd volgens de auteurs wel voor het eerst vastgesteld bij de Mechelse herder.

During a nine month survey in the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, E. coli O157 was isolated from six out of 300 faecal samples collected from 258 mammals, 33 birds and nine reptiles. Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli O157/H7 (EHEC) strains were isolated from a horse (Equus caballus) and two primates: a ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) and a goeldi’s monkey (Callimico goeldii). Atypical E. coli O157 strains, which fermented sorbitol and were β-glucuronidase positive, were isolated from two silvered leaf monkeys (Presbytis cristatus) and a ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta). These strains were classified as enteropathogenic (EPEC), as they only possessed the eaeA gene as a virulence marker. With five isolations out of 48 samples, the primates can be considered a potential source of infection by E. coli O157.