Pathology of exotic species

Pathological examination of non-domesticated ("exotic") species plays an important part in disease diagnosis and in furthering our understanding of these animals, both in captivity and in the wild. Gross post-mortem (necropsy) investigation necessitates a sound knowledge of normal biology, familiarity with exotic animal diseases, access to literature and collegues, adequate facilities, a systematic approach and a willingness to communicate. Satisfactory collection, transportation, submission and processing of laboratory samples are equally important and must be coupled with careful and critical interpretation of results (AU)

From concepts to programs: three decades of progress for veterinary public health and animal health in Latin America and the Caribbean

The purpose of this article is twofold: to review the basic rationale behind veterinary medical activities in Latin America and the Caribbean and to describe the role PAHO has played over the last three decades in promoting and helping to improve the quality of these activities. In essence, development of a strong veterinary public health program in the region has depended upon three major precepts. These are: (1) Animal health is a key factor in socioeconomic development. (2) There is a critical interrelationship between human and animal health that becomes evident in veterinary public health programs. (3) Veterinary public health plays an important role in in focusing attention on communicable disease problems and in pioneering new programs in animal health and veterinary education. Clearly animal health in Latin Amarica and the Caribbean is inextricably linked to socioeconomic development. Livestock represents an important agricultural product and a major source of revenue. It is therefore essential to reduce economic losses wrought by animal diseases such as zoonoses, foot and mouth disease, hog cholera, piroplasmosis, and Newcastle disease. The resulting increased productivity and freer international trade would help alleviate the critical shortages of energy and protein that beset the world today. A key interrelationship between human and animal health relates to man's need of protein. Malnutrition, which continues to plague the populations of developing countries, was recently shown to be the indirect or direct cause of half of the deaths among children under 5 years of age in Latin America. The livestock industry is a principal tool for alleviating this problem by providing essential protein. In addition, some of the more prevalent diseases - rabies, brucellosis, tuberculosis, hydatidosis, the equine encephalitides, leptospirosis, and anthrax - are acquired directly or indirectly from animals. Given these important linkages between animal and human health, it is appropriate that national and international programs should have been instituted to promote well-being and prevent disease, capitalising on the resources of veterinary and scientific communities. In the Americas, PAHO's Special Program of Animal Health has spearheaded these pioneering efforts. That program has proved instrumental in promoting, establishing and providing technicial support for all phases of national and regional animal health activities. Numerous PAHO-supported country projects have been successfully completed, and many others are still underway, in such critical areas as: veterinary aducation and development of human resources; animal disease control, epidemiology,and vaccine production; animal disease diagnostic laboratories; food production; and laboratory animal medicine. All in all, it is now evident that this Program's past and present endeavors have made a major contribution to human and animal health. But it is also true that solutions of the problems confronted partly through that program will require a contuining political commitment to provide appropriate finincial and human resources - and failure to employ sufficient resources of this kind could have a serious impact on animal health and human well-being in the Americas (Summary)

Preliminary report on the isolation of twelve leptospira serotypes in Barbados

Twelve leptospira serotypes, representing four different serogroups, have been isolated from rodents in Barbados. That six of the isolates belong to the icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup may be of some significance in regard to human leptospirosis on the island. (AU)

American trypanosomiasis in British Honduras. VI. A natural infection with Trypanosoma (Schizotrypanum) cruzi in the opossum Didelphis marsupialis (Marsupialia, Didelphoidea), and experimental investigations of different wild-animal species as possible reservoirs for the parasite

The occurrence is described of a natural infection with Trypanosoma (Schizotrypanum) cruzi in the common opossum, Didelphis marsupialis, captured in El Cayo District, British Honduras. The identity of the parasite was established from histological sections if the heart muscle, which showed pseudocysts filled with leishmania forms. Seven species of wild animal were experimentally infected with T. cruzi. Rats of the species Heteromys desmarestianus, Ototylomys philotis, Tylomys nudicaudus and Oryzomys sp. were all highly susceptible to the parasite and developed a fatal illness. It ie concluded that these species are unlikely to act as natural reservoirs for T. cruzi, but that they may prove useful in further experimental studies on the parasite and for the passage of strains. A rat of the species Nyctomys sumichrasti showed a high resistance to the infection; only scanty intracellular forms of T. cruzi were found in heart-muscle smears, and chagastic pseudocysts were present in small numbers in histological sections of the heart muscle. Results similar to those obtained with the Nyctomys rat were observed in a coati (Nasua narica), which also showed a high resistance to the challenge . No intracellular forms of T. cruzi were found in the heart muscle, but they were present in small numbers in the liver and spleen; they were morphologically identical to those seen in the heart muscle smears from the Nyctomys rat. No infection developed in two young grey foxes (Urocyon cinereo-argenteus) when challenged with a highly virulent strain of T. cruzi. It is concluded that these animals are unlikely to act as natural reservoirs for the parasite in British Honduras. It is believed that, although experimental inoculation of wild animals with T. cruzi may be prejudiced by their possible previous contact with the parasite, the results may give some indication of the nature of possible reservoir-hosts. (AU)

The importance of animal disease to public health in the Caribbean with special reference to Jamaica PART V: Parasitic infections

(1) A survey of the parasitic disease common to man and animals in the Caribbean has been described. (2) The limited occurred of Taenia daginata, T. solium, Echinococcus granulosus and Trichinella spiralis is pointed out. (3) Reference is made to the high incidence of human infections with Fasciola hepatica in Cuba (AU)