During the period from June to September 2004, 700 of 867 nursing piglets experienced yellowish diarrhez with a watery consistency on a swine farm in Iwate Prefecture. Clinical signs of the disease were found among five- to nine-day-old piglets. Seventy piglets died or were eradicated for retarded growth. One affected and two convalescent piglets were examined pathologically and pathogenetically. The principal lesions were present in the jejunum and ileum. Fibrinonecrotic enteritis with Isospora suis in various stages of development was observed in the affected piglet, and a pronounced atrophy of the intestinal villi was found in the convales-cent piglets. Oocysts of the organism were obtained from the rectal contents of the affected piglets, but not from those of the sows. There was no evidence to suggest that other enteropathogens had been associated with the disease. These results indicate that this outbreak would have been caused by an I. suis infection. Since the occurrence was markedly diminished after the farrowing crates and concrete floor were disinfected with orthodichlorobenzene and steam, the sources of the infection may have been present under the farrowing environment.

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An epizootic outbreak of diarrhea, milk drop and inappetence in lactating cows occurred on a dairy farm in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Rotavirus particles were observed in fecal samples under electron microscopy. On polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the dsRNA migration pattern from fecal samples was characteristic of bovine group B rotavirus (GBR). Fecal samples were positive for GBR by reverstranscriptase PCR. No diarrheal pathogens in fecal samples were found on bacteriological or parasitological testing. Antibody testing for GBR by ELISA showed seroconversion in most lactating cows on the farm concerned. We subsequently investigated 130 serum samples from 26 herds to determine the prevalence of infection with GBR in Fukui Prefecture. Results were positive in 21 of 26 herds (81%) and in 65 of 130 samples (50%). These results suggest that there is some doubt that occurrences of diarrhea, milk drop and inappetence in lactating cows are related toinfection with bovine GBR or that GBR infection is prevalent in Fukui Prefecture.

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Between 1992 and 2005, a total of 549 isolates of Salmonella enterica were obtained from farm animals, wild animals and their environment on 56 farms, including 402 isolates from poultry and environmental swabs, 43 dairy cattle, 28 swine, 21 broilers, five beef cattle, four silky fowls, one pony, one goat, 41 wild animals, and three feed samples, in Okinawa prefecture (Japan). The isolates were classified into 61 serovars. The five most predominant servovars were Salmonella Bareilly 9.5%, Weltevreden 8.4%, Enteritidis 7.7%, Newport 7.5%, and Typhimurium 7.3%. The resistance rates of the isolates were oxytetracycline 18.0%, streptomycin 17.3%, ampicillin 6.4%, kanamycin 5.1%, chloramphenicol 4.4%, cefuroxime 0.7%, and nalidixic acid 0.2%, respectively. Twelve isolates showed resistance to five drugs (ABPC-SM-KM-OTC-CP) and 124 (22.6%) were resistant to one or more of the 11 antimicrobial agents tested. Four isolates of S. Newport were resistant to five agents (ABPC, SM, CXM, OTC and CP) and the blacMY gene was detected in four isolates by PCR. Only one isolate originating from sick dairy cattle in 1992 belongs to definitive phage types (DT) 104.

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Infections with Babesia gibsoni, haemobartonella and Ehrlichia in 536 dogs was examined using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) specific for each agent in an animal hospital in Sumoto, an endemic area of canine B. gibsoni infection. Ten of 536 dogs (1.9%) tested positive for B. gibsoni, another 16 (3.0%) tested positive for haemobartonella, and none tested positive for Ehrlichia. No mixed infection of B. gibsoni and haemobartonella was detected. Of 16 dogs testing positive for haemobartonella, five were found to be infected with Mycoplasma haemocanis and the other 11 were infected with Candidatus Mycoplasma haematoparvum.

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Among dogs presented to a general veterinary clinic, 214 dogs consisting of 114 males and 100 females were randomly selected and examined for gallbladder retention using an ultrasonic diagnostic equipment. Gallbladder retention was observed in 20 of the 214 dogs (9.3%), which consisted of five out of 87 healthy dogs (5.7%) and 15 out of 127 diseased dogs (11.8%). The 15 diseased dogs with gallbladder retention included four out of six dogs with hypothyroidism (67%), four out of eight dogs with hepatic and/or cystic diseases (50%), and one out of three dogs with pancreatitis (33%). Gallbladder retention was found as fixed gallbladder sludge and cystomyxoma-like gallbladder sludge in three (15%) and four (20%) of the 20 dogs, respectively. Examining the mean age of dogs with gallbladder retention by type showed that it was highest at 13.7 years old for cystomyxoma-like gallbladder sludge, followed by 11.8 for fixed gallbladder sludge and 7.6 years old for movable gallbladder sludge. The mean age of dogs with gallbladder retention tended to be higher than that of dogs without retention. Aging and having a disease may be involved in the development of gallbladder retention in dogs.

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Three different nested-PCR assays were evaluated in terms of their ability to detect Bartonella DNA in catblood samples. The primer pairs used were parts of the citrate synthase (gltA) gene, heat shock protein (htrA) gene and 16S-23S rRNA intergenic region (ITS) gene, respectively. Of the 29 culture-positive cats-blood samples, Bartonella DNA was detected in 20 (68.9%) by the gltA nested-PCR and htrA nested-PCR. The ITS nested- PCR detected Bartonella DNA in 26 of 29 (89.7%). In two of 29 specimens, none of the gene examined was detected. These results indicate that the nested-PCR is a useful tool for the detection of Bartonella DNA in cat-blood samples.

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