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Abstract A ten-year-old male standard dachshund was presented with a history of neck pain and progressive gait disturbances. Following a neurological examination and diagnostic imaging, including CT, a neoplastic lesion involving the third and fourth cervical vertebrae was suspected. The lesion included an extradural mass on the right side of the spinal canal causing a local compression of the cervical cord. Surgery, using a modified dorsal laminectomy procedure, was performed in order to decompress the cervical spinal cord. Histopathological examination of the extradural mass indicated that the tumour was a chondroid chordoma. Following discharge, the quality of life for the dog was very good for a sustained period, but clinical signs recurred at 22 months. The dog was euthanased 25 months post-surgery. On post-mortem examination, a regrowth of neoplastic tissue was found to have infiltrated the bone and spinal cord at C3-C4. This is the first report to show that palliative surgery can offer successful long-lasting treatment of chondroid chordoma of the cervical spine in the dog.

Cryptosporidium parvum, a zoonotic protozoan parasite, causes important losses in neonatal ruminants. Innate immunity plays a key role in controlling the acute phase of this infection. The participation of NCR1+ Natural Killer (NK) cells in the early intestinal innate immune response to the parasite was investigated in neonatal lambs inoculated at birth. The observed increase in the lymphocyte infiltration was further studied by immunohistology and flow cytometry with focus on distribution, density, cellular phenotype related to cytotoxic function and activation status. The frequency of NCR1+ cells did not change with infection, while their absolute number slightly increased in the jejunum and the CD8+/NCR1-T cell density increased markedly. The frequency of perforin+ cells increased significantly with infection in the NCR1+ population (in both NCR1+/CD16+ and NCR1+/CD16-populations) but not in the NCR1-/CD8+ population. The proportion of NCR1+ cells co-expressing CD16+ also increased. The fraction of cells expressing IL2 receptor (CD25), higher in the NCR1+/CD8+ population than among the CD8+/NCR1-cells in jejunal Peyer's patches, remained unchanged during infection. However, contrary to CD8+/NCR1-lymphocytes, the intensity of CD25 expressed by NCR1+ lymphocytes increased in infected lambs. Altogether, the data demonstrating that NK cells are highly activated and possess a high cytotoxic potential very early during infection, concomitant with an up-regulation of the interferon gamma gene in the gut segments, support the hypothesis that they are involved in the innate immune response against C. parvum. The early significant recruitment of CD8+/NCR1-T cells in the small intestine suggests that they could rapidly drive the establishment of the acquired immune response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Inclusion of yeast improved post-weaning AID of protein. • The largest differences in gene expression between diets were seen on day 7 PW. • Weaning induced downregulation of several immune functions in control piglets. • Feeding yeast seemed to reduce post-weaning immunosuppression. • Yeast can improve PW gut homeostasis and give more robust piglets. This study investigated the effect of feeding Cyberlindnera jadinii yeast on the development of gastrointestinal function and health in piglets during the first two challenging weeks after weaning. Changes in gastrointestinal function were mainly attributed to weaning, and not to dietary treatment. The post-weaning (PW) transcriptome profiles differed between dietary treatments showing an overall higher number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in control piglets than in yeast-fed piglets. DEGs in jejunum and ileum were compared between sampling timepoints within each feeding group and divided into clusters with similar expression trends. Pathway enrichment analysis was run on each cluster to reveal PW physiological changes. Weaning induced downregulation of several immune functions in the control piglets, which was not as evident in the yeast fed piglets. The results indicate that feeding C. jadinii yeast can improve PW gut homeostasis and give more robust piglets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]