Bacillary Hemoglobinuria Research Articles

Case Histories of Clostridium Hemolyticum Infection

My topic today is case histories of clostridium hemolyticum infection. We call this disease "red water" down in our part of the country. It is also knows as bacillary hemoglobinuria.
 In Florida, red water is a relatively new disease. So far as I can find out, it was first suspected as the cause of several deaths in a Brahman herd in the Kissimmee River Valley area around 1957 or 1958. Five years later, in 1962, it was positively diagnosed by laboratory confirmation some 75 to 80 miles to the south in a herd located on the northwest shore of Lake Okeechobee, where the Kissimmee River runs into the lake. Since then, it has spread to just about every area in southern Florida.
 I mention where the disease was first found because I feel that it has something to do with the spread of the disease in our area. But first, let me say something about the causitive organism, how it affects cattle, and its diagnosis.
 Red water is caused by one of the clostridial organisms, clostridium hemolyticum. Bovine Medicine and Surgery describes the organism as a noncapsulated, sluggishly motile spore forming, obligate anaerobic rod. They also state that culture requirements are most exacting and that it closely resembles Cl novyi and Cl sardellie in culture features, but is an immunologically distinct species. On cultural media, atoxin is produced that has a twofold affect on body tissue. One causes hemolysis of erythrocytes and the other, tissue necrosis. Hemolysis and liver necrosis is also found in natural infection. It is gram positive for the first 24 hours of growth on culture, then becomes gram negative.

Studies on clostridium oedematiens

Twenty-eight strains of Cl. oedematiens, 4 type A, 17 type B and 7 type D, were studied by cultural, biochemical, immunological and serological procedures. A culture classified as Cl. oedematiens by cultural characteristics, could be identified as either type A or type B or D, by its morphology, sensitivity to air and the fall in pH in cultures containing glucose, maltose or glycerin. Types B and D were differentiated with difficulty on morphology grounds. The differentiation of type A from types B and D could be confirmed by cross neutralisation of haemolysin in mature cultures in sugar-free media. There was no evidence that any antigens other than gamma and beta participated in these reactions. To distinguish type B from type D, the presence or absence of alpha toxin was established by intramuscular injection of supernatant fluid from cultures in mice. Antisera were prepared against 6 strains, namely, two from human gas gangrene, one from gas gagrene in sheep, one from black disease in Turkey, one from black disease in Australia, and one type B strain, previously regarded as Cl. haemolyticum, from bacillary haemoglobinuria. There was no evidence of preferential protection by homologous sera. The high lethality of alpha toxin, compared with that of beta haemolysin, suggests that the latter takes no part in Cl. oedematiens type B infection. It is pointed out that bacillary haemoglobinuria is a massive haemolysis due to rapid production of abundance of beta haemolysin in a massive liver infarct, and attention is drawn to the importance of distinguishing it from black disease.

Experimental bacillary hemoglobinuria. II. Pathogenesis of the hepatic lesion in the rabbit.

Bacillary hemoglobinuria was expertmenially induced in rabbits by intravenous inoculation with Spores of Clostridium bemolyticum and subsequent hepatic biopsy. The biopsy wound disrupted the hepatic vasculature and damaged the adjacent parenchyma. This damage and the resulting hypoxia created conditions favorable for the germination of the inoculated spores. As the bacteria proliferated, their exotoxin lysed the hepatocytes and the erythrocytes in the immediate area. The bulk of the hepatic necrosis in bacillary hemoglobinuria was due to this exotoxin. Vascular thrombi caused by the exotoxic damage enhanced the development of the lesion.

Bacillary hemoglobinuria: induction by liver biopsy in naturally and experimentally infected animals.

An outbreak of bacillary hemoglobinuria was precipitated by liver biopsy of calves from an area in which the disease was enzootic. Using the strain of Clostridium hemolyticum recovered from this outbreak, calves, ewes, and rabbits were inoculated intravenously or orally with a toxin-free spore suspension. Subsequent liver biopsy precipitated the disease in these animals. The characteristic focus of liver necrosis was regularly reproduced and appeared to be of toxic rather than ischemic origin.

Bacillary haemoglobinuria in cattle in New Zealand

Abstract Extract Haemoglobinuria is a relatively common symptom in cattle in New Zealand associated with a number of clinical entities which have been described—leptospirosis, “Brassica redwater”, and post-parturient haemoglobinuria. To date, haemoglobinuria resulting from infection with Clostridium haemolyticum has not been recorded, so it will be of interest to practitioners to learn that this condition does exist and must be considered in the differential diagnosis of “redwater” in cattle in the field. Marshall (pers. comm.) has isolated the organism from other animal species, and there is evidence to suggest that it has been present for some time. No assessment of its importance in the fieldcan be made at present, but it may explain some of the sudden deaths which occur from time to time.

VACCINES IN DAIRY ANIMAL DISEASE CONTROL

A number of important diseases of dairy cattle can be prevented by the use of vaccines. Such vaccines are produced and distributed under the supervision of the United States Bureau of Animal Industry.In this article pertinent information is given with respect to vaccines for use against anthrax, blackleg, malignant edema, bacillary hemoglobinuria, brucellosis, hemorrhagic septicemia, and several other less important diseases of dairy cattle.

Serologic Study of Sixteen Strains of Bacillus Hemolyticus

During the investigation of red water disease (bacillary hemoglobinuria), a fatal disease of cattle, by the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, a hitherto unidentified anaerobic bacillus was consistently encountered, which is now believed to be the causative organism of this disease. The morphology, cultural characters and pathogenicity of this organism have been previously described by us.1 Meyer,2 Mack and one of us (E. R.),3 Boyd4 and ourselves5 published accounts of this disease as it occurs in the intermountain valleys of Nevada, southern Oregon and California. Matte6 described the same disease as it occurs in the Andes Mountains in Chile.