Microbial etiological survey of felid chronic nephritis in zoo
Date Issued
2005
Date
2005
Author(s)
Chiou, Hue-Ying
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
During routing health monitoring and disease surveillance for zoo animals, it was revealed that chronic interstitial nephritis was a common pathological finding in zoo felids. Chronic interstitial nephritis may represent the end result of several different renal diseases, including glomerulonephritis, interstitial nephritis, and chronic pyelonephritis. The non-infectious causes of chronic renal diseases in the cat include congenital disorders, decreased blood supply to renal arteries, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, hypertension, and dietary; the infectious causes include feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV), feline leukemia virus (FeLV), and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), Leptospira spp., Escherichia coli, Proteus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Klebsiella spp., Streptococcus spp., Bartonella spp., Toxoplasma gondii, Neospora caninum, and Dirofilaria immitis etc. All felid species are susceptible to FIPV but the disease has a higher prevalence in certain species such as the cheetah. Infections of FeLV and FIV are only rarely reported in exotic feline species, such as African lions, tigers, and panthers. The clinical significance of FIV and FeLV in zoo felids is still unknown. Leptospirosis is a zoonotic emerging infectious diseases causing interstitial nephritis in man and animals and has been reported in zoo workers acquired from bear cubs. This observation suggests that zoonotic leptospiral infection should be considered as a possible pathogen for zoo felids as well.
One hundred and seventy-seven paraffin embedded renal tissues of the zoo felids collected during 1989 and 2004 were subjected to histopathological examination. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect Leptospira spp. and immunofluorsecence antibody test (IFA) was used for feline coronavirus. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect Leptospira spp., FeLV, and FIV. In the 177 cases, 65.5%（116/177）showed evidence of nephritis. Within the 116 cases of nephritis, 97.4%（113/116） were classified as interstitial nephritis. By applying the polyclonal antibody against the outer membrane protein of Leptospira shermani by IHC, a 24.8% (28/113) positive rate was revealed. In addition, the analysis of FIPV antigens in the kidneys of 46 felids with membrano- and/or proliferative glomerulonephritis using IFA by a polyclonal antibody against the spike protein of TGEV revealed that 6 out of 46 (6/46, 13%) cases showing positive signals in the glomeruli. Nucleic acid was successfully extracted from the tissue block of 70 out of 177 cases. Seventeen out of the 70 cases (17/70, 24.3%) were positive for Leptospira, 2 out of the 70 cases (2/70, 2.9%) were positive for FeLV, but none of the cases (0/70) was positive for FIV by PCR.
The results suggest that leptospira should be considered as a possible important pathogen in association with the common observed chronic nephritis in zoo felids. The role of FIPV, FeLV, and FIV in chronic nephritis of zoo felids is minor.
Subjects
貓科動物
慢性腎炎
鉤端螺旋體
貓傳染性腹膜炎
Felid
Chronic Nephritis
Leptospira
Feline Infectious Peritonitis
SDGs
Type
thesis
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