The association between the disease severity of the dam and fetal infection was investigated using 11 pregnant Japanese Black cows diagnosed with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection from September 2012 to May 2013. Histopathologically, intestinal lesions were categorized as “severe” (2 cows), “intermediate” (4 cows) and “mild” (5 cows) according to their severity. A quantitative PCR test (qPCR) detected the DNA of MAP in all of the cows (4.05E-07—1.24E+06 pg/2.5μl), and MAP was isolated from 10 cows by bacterial culture. The bacterial DNA was confirmed in seven of the 11 fetuses (fetal age of 60 to 250 days) (1.24E-04—7.00E-03 pg/2.5μl), and MAP was isolated from one of the DNA-positive fetuses (fetal age 250 days). The qPCR positive rate in fetuses was higher among the dams with more severe pathological and bacteriological conditions, whereas the amounts of DNA detected in the organs of the fetuses were similar, regardless of their dams' disease status. The youngest fetal age among the infected fetuses was 60 days, indicating that the infection could occur in the early stages of pregnancy.

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A dog with acute neurological signs consistent with head ptosis, stooped posture, neck pain and tonic seizure showed increased white blood cells and C-reactive protein in a blood cell count and serum bio-chemistry. An MRI revealed intracranial and extracranial lesions with the contrast-enhancing ring-shaped effect characteristically seen in abscesses, connected to each other, which extended to the dorsal of the hard palate. A large number of neutrophils on smear preparation and γ-Streptococcus with bacteria culture were detected in the extracranial lesions. Based on these findings, the dog was diagnosed with an intracranial abscess, probably derived from periodontitis. We successfully treated the intracranial abscess using antibiotics, without surgical treatment. In an MRI on the 50th day, the ring-shaped lesions had completely disappeared.

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A 12-year-old male neutered mixed breed dog presented with left forelimb lameness and lethargy. Peripheral blood cytology revealed the presence of blastic cells, and bone marrow and spleen cytopathology showed neoplastic cells that were suspected megakaryocyte-derived cells. Flow cytometry revealed frequent platelet- and megakaryocyte-derived cells that were positive for CD41/61, markers for megakaryocytic precursors. The present case was therefore diagnosed as acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. Although the dogʼs general condition improved with prednisolone treatment, it developed acute anemia and thrombocytopenia, and subsequently died 26 days after admission, despite L-asparaginase and blood transfusion treatments.

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Although many meat inspection centers provide abattoir condemnation data to each producer, few studies relating to statistical processes on abattoir data have been reported. Time series analysis is widely used in a range of biomedicine, including public health, and can be used to detect outbreaks of disease and to determine the effect of drugs based on significant changes in the condemnation rate. In this study, we carried out investigations to obtain favorable conditions for utilizing the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model for the analysis of the condemnation rates. The degree of fit between the condemnation rates and the models estimated using the SARIMA model and those estimated using the exponential smoothing method as a control were compared for 4 diseases of swine from 10 producers. The deviances for 39 out of 40 models were smaller than the control, and statistical significance was shown for 27 out of 40 models. In conclusion, this method can provide an index for determining the sanitation of farms for producers, and can be utilized as a tool to promote hygienic meat production.

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