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Objectives: Minimal research has examined the number of health departments conducting work related to equity and/or the kind of work, if any, they are conducting. We examined the relationship between public health accreditation and work related to health equity by analyzing accredited health departments' responses to a prompt in the Public Health Accreditation Board's (PHAB's) annual report. Methods: We analyzed self-reported responses from accredited health departments to questions about emerging public health issues and innovations in PHAB's annual report. We identified themes using a priori and inductive coding. Results: A total of 316 health departments submitted an annual report from January 2015 through December 2021. Of those health departments, 283 (89.6%) stated in their annual report that they engaged in work related to health equity, 50 (17.7%) of which provided a narrative about this work. Of those 50 health departments, the most common theme reported was community partnership, described by 23 (46.0%) health departments. The next most reported themes were COVID-19 vaccine access for racially or socioeconomically marginalized communities (n = 17, 34.0%) and programs related to health equity (n = 16, 32.0%). Conclusions: We found that most accredited health departments conduct work related to health equity. Further research is needed to examine characteristics that influence a health department's likelihood of conducting equity work. Models and resources on how health departments, particularly small health departments, can begin equity work would be valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 1.5‐year‐old, male intact Basset Hound presented with a 2‐month history of rapidly progressing oral papillomatosis. The dog exhibited ptyalism, oral pain, difficulty in prehending food and a strong malodor from the oral cavity. The dog was unresponsive to oral azithromycin and injectable interferon therapy. The dog was treated with laser ablation of the lesions every 2–4 weeks and received 10 doses of a canine papillomavirus type 1 (CPV1) L1 virus‐like particle vaccine every 14 days for 20 weeks. At the end of the 14 weeks, the recurrence of oral lesions had slowed significantly with minimal papillomas remaining in the oral cavity. Eight weeks later a final laser ablation surgery was performed to remove a small number of recrudescent papillomas. Two weeks later the dog had no oral lesions. Long‐term follow‐up was not possible as the dog was euthanised due to the emergence of a B cell lymphoproliferative disease and subsequent decline. The presence of an immune suppressive neoplasia may help to explain the development of severe, refractory oral papillomatosis in a young dog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cytological examination of the skin is an important diagnostic technique in dermatology for disease diagnosis and monitoring of treatment. Impression smear and tape‐strip preparation are gold standard cytological techniques. This study introduces a novel cytological method, slurry preparation, in which debris collected from the skin surface is macerated in warm sterile water and dried on the slide. Hypothesis/Objectives: To compare organism yield between a novel and two standard cytological collection techniques by evaluating bacteria and Malassezia yeast counts. Animals: Thirty client‐owned dogs diagnosed with atopic dermatitis and lesions consistent with pyoderma and/or Malassezia dermatitis. Materials and Methods: In a prospective, blinded comparison study, dermatological lesions from each dog were sampled using impression smear, tape‐strip and slurry preparation methodologies. Ten random reticle fields per lesion, accounting for a total area of 6.25 × 10−3 mm2 (equivalent to ˜5% of a typical ×40 field), were evaluated by light microscopy for each cytological method. Bacterial and Malassezia organisms were measured as counts/sample. The slurry preparation was compared to each of the standard methodologies separately using paired Student's t‐tests. Results: The slurry preparation was demonstrated to be more sensitive than gold standard techniques in detecting bacteria, with mean differences of 12.7 and 13.5 additional bacteria per cytological sample, compared to the impression and tape‐strip preparations, respectively. The slurry preparation did not differ significantly in detecting Malassezia organisms compared with impression smear preparation. The tape‐strip preparation was demonstrated to be more sensitive than the slurry preparation in the detection of Malassezia organisms, finding a mean difference of 0.22 more organisms per sample. Conclusion: Slurry preparation presents advantages over the gold standard techniques in the detection of bacteria which can help to manage canine pyoderma more appropriately. Performing a slurry preparation in cases of suspected canine pyoderma could be considered as an alternative to the gold standard techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]