Alabama Rot Research Articles

Small animal disease surveillance 2020/21: SARS-CoV-2, syndromic surveillance and an outbreak of acute vomiting in UK dogs.

Small animal disease surveillance 2020/21: SARS-CoV-2, syndromic surveillance and an outbreak of acute vomiting in UK dogs.

One Health, One National Park: A Contribution to New Perspectives and Economics for Modern Times

One Health is a concept that sees human, animal, and environmental health as parts of a single interdependent system. The Covid-19 pandemic, its implications reaching far beyond the direct effects of a coronavirus on people’s health, underlines the importance of this increasingly influential perspective. In practice, One Health has its roots in early affiliations of human and animal health science. Over time, each sphere of inquiry evolved to address its own agenda. Recently, veterinary scientists have led the reintegration, extension, and promotion of One Health sciences to address modern-day problems in which health and people’s general wellbeing are viewed as inseparable. A prerequisite is to set out a framework of concepts and principles enabling clear definition of problems, interrelationships needing to be understood, and the level of aggregation appropriate for quantitative analysis. This paper extends the framework by considering economic trade-offs that inevitably must be made in the human, animal, and environmental sub-systems, and the consequences when policy interventions are superimposed on them. The New Forest National Park in southern England is a case where this perspective is essential. Following the Stone Mountain definition of One Health, first a conventional approach linking human and animal health is taken. Lyme disease, Alabama rot, bovine tuberculosis and strangles are examples of diseases known to be of significant concern. The focus is finding scope for socially efficient risk reduction in response to mitigation resource use. Superimposed on the grazing livestock subsystems are support payments for commoner farmers. The financial incentives provided by what effectively are headage payments have caused animal inventories to grow so much that the wider environment may well be subject to adverse spillover effects that merit investigation.

Pathology and Epidemiology of Cutaneous and Renal Glomerular Vasculopathy in Dogs

Cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV) has been recognized as a potentially life-threatening condition of dogs in the UK since 2012, although there was a single (non-azotaemic) case reported in the UK in 2000. Prior to that, CRGV was recognized in the 1980s in southern USA as a disease affecting solely racing greyhounds (which gave rise to the colloquial name of 'Alabama rot'). CRGV manifests as ulcerative skin lesions, generally sparing the dorsum. It is variably associated with systemic signs including anaemia, thrombocytopenia and acute kidney injury, which, when it develops, is often severe and fatal. CRGV is characterized histopathologically as a thrombotic microangiopathy. To date in the UK, more than 230 dogs of varying breed and age have been humanely destroyed and histopathologically confirmed to be suffering from CRGV. The aetiology remains unknown, but the seasonal distribution (highest case incidence November-May each year) suggests that environmental or climatic factors may play a role in disease development. Further research to determine the aetiology and improve ante-mortem diagnostic testing, therapeutic options and preventive strategies is urgently needed.

Teasing out the risks for Alabama rot

Cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV) – more commonly known as Alabama rot – was first reported in the UK in 2012. Since then cases have been reported annually. The...

Spatiotemporal patterns and agroecological risk factors for cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (Alabama Rot) in dogs in the UK

The annual outbreaks of cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV) reported in UK dogs display a distinct seasonal pattern (November to May) suggesting possible climatic drivers of the disease. The...

‘New Forest syndrome’: first pieces of the puzzle

IN THE past two to three years, there has been much interest surrounding the apparent emergence of a disease commonly known to the general public as ‘New Forest syndrome’. There...

Congress 2015

Abstract On the potential cause of new diseases, in particular cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy, or ‘Alabama rot’.

STEC as a veterinary problem. Diagnostics and prophylaxis in animals.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are important human pathogens causing severe clinical syndromes in a high percentage of infected individuals (see Chapter 1). Naturally acquired STEC infections have also been detected in a wide spectrum of animal species (cattle, sheep, goat, deer, moose, swine, horse, dog, cat, pigeon, chicken, turkey, gull) sometimes even with considerable prevalences (1–10). Several of these animal hosts, particularly ruminants, have been identified as major reservoires of STEC strains that are highly virulent in the human host (e.g., EHEC O157:H7). However, in contrast to the human host, most STEC infections of animals remain clinically inapparent. Even in ruminant species, where shedding rates of up to 88% have been reported (2), the clinical significance of STEC infections seems to be rather limited. A natural pathogenic role of STEC has been clearly identified in weaned piglets (edema disease [ED] E. coli enterotoxemia) (11), calves (watery to bloody diarrhea) (12,13), and greyhounds (cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy of greyhounds [CRVG], “Alabama rot”) (14,15). However, histological and in vitro studies revealed that certain epithelial and/or endothelial cells are affected by shiga toxins even in animals appearing clinical healthy (16–18). Thus, the true health importance of STEC infections for animal hosts may be underestimated.

Glomerular ultrastructural lesions of idiopathic cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy of greyhounds.

Idiopathic cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV) (Alabama rot) is a potentially fatal disease of unknown etiology that affects the skin and kidneys of racing- and training-age Greyhounds. Ultrastructural examinations were performed on two healthy control Greyhounds and 12 Greyhounds diagnosed with CRGV based on the presence of characteristic, well-demarcated cutaneous ulcers of the extremities (12/12), thrombocytopenia (< 200,000 platelets/dl) (12/12), and acute renal insufficiency (BUN > 40 mg/dl, serum creatinine > 2.0 mg/dl) (7/12). Early glomerular ultrastructural changes included endothelial swelling, detachment, and necrosis; membranous whorl formation; and platelet adhesion and aggregation. Some capillaries were occluded with aggregated platelets, cellular fragments, and fibrin. Later changes included narrowing of capillary lumina and thickening of glomerular capillary walls by subendothelial accumulation of flocculent, amorphous, variable electron-dense material and occasionally erythrocytes, cellular processes, and fibrin. Glomerular endothelial cells were increased in number and plump, with villouslike cytoplasmic projections. Mesangial cell cytoplasmic processes occasionally were interposed between the endothelium and the basement membrane. No etiologic agents or electron-dense deposits typical of immune complexes were observed. Although the specific etiology was not determined, the ultrastructural changes suggest that glomerular endothelial damage is an important early event in the pathogenesis of CRGV.