Pathological, Bacteriological and Virological Findings in Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Young Dogs.

Giuseppe Piegari,Lorena Cardillo,Flora Alfano,Valentina Iovane,Giovanna Fusco,Lucia Vangone

doi:10.3390/ani10071134

Abstract

Simple Summary“Sudden death” has been defined by the World Health Organization as a non-violent, unexpected death occurring less than 24 h from the onset of symptoms. The causes of sudden death have been widely investigated in human forensic medicine. In contrast, few studies have been reported in the veterinary literature. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of sudden deaths in young dogs in different age ranges. A secondary aim was to collect information regarding clinical symptoms, and pathological and microbiological findings related to sudden death in young dogs. The results of the present study demonstrate that the highest frequency of sudden death occurs in animals in an age range from 10 days to 1 month and from 6 to 12 months. The most frequently observed clinical symptoms in cases of sudden death were acute respiratory symptoms. Furthermore, Canine parvovirus type 2, E. coli, Canine Distemper Virus, Clostridium perfringens type A, and Pasteurella spp. were the main causes of death observed in the present study. The results reported in the present study could provide a reference basis to better investigate sudden death in veterinary clinical practice.In human medicine, “sudden death” has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a non-violent, unexpected death occurring less than 24 h from the onset of symptoms. The aims of this study were: (1) to estimate the proportional mortality ratio for “sudden and unexpected death” (SUD) in young dogs; (2) to investigate the pathological and microbiological findings in SUD cases in young dogs. For these purposes, a retrospective study of a total of 145 cases of young dead dogs was performed. For each case, we collected information about the age, medical history and the gross and microbiological findings of the animals. The results of this study found 21 cases of SUD. The most frequently observed clinical symptoms in the cases of sudden death were acute respiratory symptoms, followed by acute gastroenteric symptoms, non-specific symptoms and neurological symptoms. The evaluation of necropsy reports allowed us to observe enteritis in 18 out of 21 cases and pneumonia in seven out of 21 cases. Viral infection with Canine parvovirus type 2 was the most common cause of SUD observed. These results could provide a valuable tool for the investigation of sudden death in young dogs.

Highlights

In human medicine, “sudden death” has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO)as a non-violent, unexpected death occurring less than 24 h from the onset of symptoms [1]; in particular, the term “sudden and unexpected infant death” (SUID) is used to describe deaths that occur relatively suddenly and unexpectedly in children less than 1 years old [2,3]
All sudden and unexpected death (SUD) cases were submitted by Italian veterinary practitioners
The highest frequencies of expected death were observed in animals in Group 2 (100% of the cases), Group 3

Summary

Introduction

“sudden death” has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO)as a non-violent, unexpected death occurring less than 24 h from the onset of symptoms [1]; in particular, the term “sudden and unexpected infant death” (SUID) is used to describe deaths that occur relatively suddenly and unexpectedly in children less than 1 years old [2,3]. Recent studies reported the relatively benign Coxsackie virus A16 as a possible contributing factor in SUID in humans [10]. For these reasons, the current SUID autopsy protocol in the UK and the international guidelines advocate for a multidisciplinary approach to the investigation of all cases of SUID, which should be based on the findings of the macroscopic examination, and on a broad range of ancillary investigations, such as bacteriological and virological analyses [11,12]. In human medicine, the concept of sudden death, SUID and SIDS has been well defined by the WHO, in veterinary medicine, a universal definition is lacking. Even if not yet validated in veterinary medicine, the WHO definition provides an important temporal reference range useful for the identification of cases of sudden death in veterinary clinical practice

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