An Outbreak of Septic Endometritis in the Arctic Blue Fox (Alopex Lagopus) caused by Clostridium Carnis

An outbreak of endometritis and septicaemia in farms that raise Arctic blue foxes is described. Eleven animals from eight different farms were examined, most of them pregnant or with newly delivered litters. Pathological examination indicated inflammation of the uterus, and focal necrotic changes in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica
Main Authors: Sørum, H., Nordstoga, K., Loftsgaard, G., Brenner, Don J., Hollis, D. G., Fossum, K.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central 1988
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8152547/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3223467
https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03548369
Description
Summary:An outbreak of endometritis and septicaemia in farms that raise Arctic blue foxes is described. Eleven animals from eight different farms were examined, most of them pregnant or with newly delivered litters. Pathological examination indicated inflammation of the uterus, and focal necrotic changes in the liver. In some animals evidence of hemorrhaging was found in the anterior part of the small intestine. Bacteriological examination revealed abundant growth from different organs of the animals of a pure culture of a small, slender, Gram-variable, sporeforming rod, which was identified phenotypically as aerotolerant Clostridium carnis. This identification was confirmed by DNA hybridization. The organism caused death in mice 1–2 days after intraperitoneal inoculation, and killed an Arctic blue fox which was inoculated intracervically. Two foxes, pretreated with diethyl-stilboestrol, became seriously ill after intrauterine inoculation, but survived. The spontaneous outbreak of the disease was characterized by sudden onset of septicaemia with few or no clinical symptoms before the animals succumbed.