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Hereditary bisalbuminemia is an asymptomatic and heterozygous condition in a range of species characterized by the presence of two serum albumin fractions with different electrophoretic mobility resulting in a bicuspid pattern on serum electrophoresis. Bisalbuminemia has been diagnosed by electrophoresis in two bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) families, but causative mutations and the inheritance pattern have not been identified. The aims of this work are: to investigate polymorphisms of the bottlenose dolphin albumin gene and to identify mutations causative of bisalbuminemia; to identify the inheritance pattern in two bottlenose dolphin families. Coding regions of the albumin gene were screened for mutations in 15 bottlenose dolphins kept under human care from two distinct families. Eighteen albumin mutations (three synonymous and 15 non-synonymous) were identified. Two non-synonymous variations co-segregated with bisalbuminemic phenotype: p.Phe146Leu in exon 4 and p.Tyr163His in exon 5. The amino acid change in exon 5 was associated with the secondary and/or tertiary structure variation of the protein and has been reported as causative of bisalbuminemia in humans. Pedigree analysis of the dolphin families showed an autosomal codominant inheritance pattern. In this work, the mutations potentially responsible for bisalbuminemia were identified and confirmed the autosomal codominant trait in bottlenose dolphins., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Hereditary bisalbuminemia is a relatively rare anomaly characterized by the occurrence of two albumin fractions on serum protein separation by electrophoresis. In human medicine, it is usually revealed by chance, is not been clearly associated with a specific disease and the causative genetic alteration is a point mutation of human serum albumin gene inherited in an autosomal codominant pattern. This type of alteration is well recognizable by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), whilst agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE) not always produces a clear separation of albumin fractions. The aims of this study is to report the presence of this abnormality in two separate groups of related bottlenose dolphins and to compare the results obtained with capillary zone and agarose gel electrophoresis., Results: Serum samples from 40 bottlenose dolphins kept under human care were analyzed. In 9 samples a double albumin peak was evident in CZE electrophoresis while no double peak was noted in AGE profile. Since only an apparently wider albumin peaks were noted in some AGE electrophoretic profiles, the ratio between base and height (b/h) of the albumin peak was calculated and each point-value recorded in the whole set of data was used to calculate a receiver operating characteristic curve: when the b/h ratio of albumin peak was equal or higher than 0.25, the sensitivity and specificity of AGE to detect bisalbuminemic samples were 87 and 63 %, respectively. The bisalbuminemic dolphins belong to two distinct families: in the first family, all the siblings derived from the same normal sire were bisalbuminemic, whereas in the second family bisalbuminemia was present in a sire and in two out of three siblings., Conclusions: We report for the first time the presence of hereditary bisalbuminemia in two groups of related bottlenose dolphins identified by means of CZE and we confirm that AGE could fail in the identification of this alteration.

We compared clinicopathologic findings in dogs with Bartonella infection to Bartonella spp. negative dogs suspected of a vector-borne disease. Cases (n=47) and controls (n=93) were selected on the basis of positive or negative enrichment culture PCR results, respectively. Signalment, clinicopathologic findings and treatments were extracted from medical records. DNA sequencing identified Bartonella henselae (n=28, 59.6%), Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii (n=20, 42.6%), Bartonella koehlerae (n=3, 6.4%), Bartonella volans-like (n=3, 6.4%) and Bartonella bovis (n=1, 2.1%). There were no significant differences in age, breed, size, sex or neuter status between cases and controls. Dogs infected with Bartonella sp. often had a history of weight loss [OR=2.82; 95% CI: 1.08-7.56] and were hypoglobulinemic [OR=4.26; 95% CI: 1.31-14.41]. With the exception of weight loss and hypoglobulinemia, clinicopathologic abnormalities in Bartonella-infected dogs in this study were similar to dogs suspected of other vector-borne infections., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Focal myocardial necrosis with mineralization occurred in mink fed the synthetic corticosteroid, dexamethasone, as a treatment for aleutian disease. Cardiac lesions occurred with equal frequency in steroid-fed controls and appeared to be related only to feeding of dexamethasone. Possible pathogenetic mechanisms are considered.

Mink infected with the aleutian disease virus developed different types of hypergammaglobulinemias according to the incidence of immunoglobulin classes. Usually, increases of immunoglobulin in serum of infected mink occurred over a broad spectrum as a general increase in the immunoglobulins. In some infected animals a predominantly selective increase was demonstrated with only certain immunoglobulin classes being present at elevated levels. Selective increases of immunoglobulin classes were observed as early as 35 days post-infection. The inoculum in experimental infection did not control or determine the type of immunoglobulin pattern which developed in the infected mink. The immunoglobulin pattern in the donor of the inoculum had no bearing on the immunglobulin pattern which developed in the recipient, infected animal.

A progressive, fatal spongiform encephalopathy developed in three squirrel monkeys 11 months after inoculation with primate-passaged transmissible mink encephalopathy agent. The clinical symptoms and histopathologic and electron microscopic findings suggest that this naturally occurring disease of mink has been transmitted experimentally to squirrel monkeys.

Ponies fasted for up to 8 days showed, both by agarose electrophoresis and preparative ultracentrifugation, the appearance of a pre-beta-migrating, very low density lipoprotein fraction in plasma. This lipoprotein differs from the very low density lipoprotein found in humans and rats in that it contains a relatively smaller amount of total cholesterol, 85% of which is present in the unesterified form. By the 8th day of fasting, plasma triglyceride concentrations had increased from a prefasting level of 20 mg/dl to as high as 1000 mg/dl. The increase in plasma lipid concentrations as a result of fasting was highly variable. Accumulation of plasma cholesterol and triglyceride after injection of Triton WR 1339 was not related to the degree of fasting hyperlipidemia. This suggests that the hyperlipoproteinemia of fasting may result from an impaired utilization of very low density lipoproteins.

Mice of the inbred SJL/J strain have a high incidence of a proliferative disease affecting several cell types, including reticulum cells and plasma cells, which is frequently accompanied by gamma(1) and gamma(2) paraproteinemia. In only some instances can seriallytransplantable lines of neoplastic cells be obtained; these are reticulum cell sarcomas. Mice with transplanted reticulum cell e arcomas do not have paraproteinemia and may develop profound hypogammaglobulinemia. The disease may be viewed as an abnormal proliferation of reticulum cells which differentiate into plasma cells with consequent paraproteinemia; the subsequent emergence of transplantable reticulum cell sarcoma appears as an end stage in which this capacity to differentiate is lost.

An experiment carried out to examine the effect of ultraviolet light on the aleutian disease agent in serum indicated that the agent was sensitive to irradiation.

Sera of weaned puppies from a hysterectomy-derived, specific pathogen free (SPF) closed dog colony did not contain antibodies against a TGE-associated virus or a serologically related one, but sera from puppies and older dogs from open kennels did. The higher antiviral titers in serum of older dogs suggested that these animals had suffered either persistent or recurrent infections. Seventy-two puppies had no contact with swine, indicating that the virus was able to propagate independently of contact with swine.