Diagnostic accuracy of clinical illness for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) diagnosis in beef cattle placed in feedlots: A systematic literature review and hierarchical Bayesian latent-class meta-analysis.

Diagnosis of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in beef cattle placed in feedlots is typically based on clinical illness (CI) detected by pen-checkers. Unfortunately, the accuracy of this diagnostic approach (namely, sensitivity [Se] and specificity [Sp]) remains poorly understood, in part due to the absence of a reference test for ante-mortem diagnosis of BRD. Our objective was to pool available estimates of CI's diagnostic accuracy for BRD diagnosis in feedlot beef cattle while adjusting for the inaccuracy in the reference test. The presence of lung lesions (LU) at slaughter was used as the reference test. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify research articles comparing CI detected by pen-checkers during the feeding period to LU at slaughter. A hierarchical Bayesian latent-class meta-analysis was used to model test accuracy. This approach accounted for imperfections of both tests as well as the within and between study variability in the accuracy of CI. Furthermore, it also predicted the SeCI and SpCI for future studies. Conditional independence between CI and LU was assumed, as these two tests are not based on similar biological principles. Seven studies were included in the meta-analysis. Estimated pooled SeCI and SpCI were 0.27 (95% Bayesian credible interval: 0.12-0.65) and 0.92 (0.72-0.98), respectively, whereas estimated pooled SeLU and SpLU were 0.91 (0.82-0.99) and 0.67 (0.64-0.79). Predicted SeCI and SpCI for future studies were 0.27 (0.01-0.96) and 0.92 (0.14-1.00), respectively. The wide credible intervals around predicted SeCI and SpCI estimates indicated considerable heterogeneity among studies, which suggests that pooled SeCI and SpCI are not generalizable to individual studies. In conclusion, CI appeared to have poor Se but high Sp for BRD diagnosis in feedlots. Furthermore, considerable heterogeneity among studies highlighted an urgent need to standardize BRD diagnosis in feedlots.

Pulmonoscopy of Snakes.

Pulmonoscopy is a practical diagnostic tool for investigating respiratory diseases in snakes. Two different approaches exist for pulmonoscopy, tracheal and transcutaneous. The access to the proximal or distal lung is limited by the length and diameter of the endoscope when using the tracheal approach. The transcutaneous approach allows direct evaluation of the lung and distal trachea through the air sac. Both of the methods are safe, and specific contraindications for pulmonoscopy in snakes are not known except for any anesthesia contraindication.

A new high-speed droplet-real-time polymerase chain reaction method can detect bovine respiratory syncytial virus in less than 10 min.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been widely used for diagnosis of infectious diseases of domestic animals. Rapid detection of respiratory pathogens of cattle is useful for making therapeutic decisions. Therefore, we developed a new genetic-based method called droplet-real-time PCR, which can detect bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) within 10 min. Our droplet-real-time PCR markedly reduced the reaction time of reverse transcription-PCR while maintaining the same sensitivity as conventional real-time PCR, and it can be used as a rapid assay for detection of BRSV. Furthermore, our method is potentially applicable for rapid diagnosis of almost all infectious diseases, including highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.

[Significance of the sampling points and the aerobic microbiological culture for the diagnosis of respiratory infections in reptiles]. / Untersuchung zur Bedeutung der Probenschen Kultivierung zur Diagnostik von Infek-tionen des Respirationstraktes bei Reptilien.

Respiratory diseases play an important role in reptiles kept in captivity. Microbiological examinations are described as an essential part of the diagnostic possibilities. Therefore the aim of this study was to collect data on the usefulness of results obtained after aerobic culture (sheepblood, brilliantgreen, sabouraud's agar) of swabs and tracheal lavages following standardized sampling. Respiratory symptoms were found in 24.3% of the snakes, 16.5% of the tortoises/turtles and 1.6% of the lizards presented in the clinic for birds and reptiles at the university Leipzig. Altogether, 52% of the examined samples were found to be bacteriologically and 31% mycologically of pathologic significance. The tracheal lavage proved to be more sensitive in comparison to swabs taken from the pharynx. The bacteria most often found in the samples were Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Stenotrophomonas maltophila. Mycologic culture revealed Aspergillus sp. and yeast most often. In boids and pythons, the highest number of bacteriologic results assessed to be of pathological significance were found (75%). Mycologically, samples from tortoises were found most often to have a result of pathological significance (48%). To summarize the aerobic cultivation on standard media (in this study: Columbia-Agar with sheep blood, brilliant-green-, Sabouraud-Agar) can be recommended as an initial diagnostic measure in reptiles presented with respiratory symptoms; further pathogens (eg, viral examination, Mycoplasma) should be checked additionally.