Vertebral fracture due to Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae osteomyelitis in a weaner

BMC Veterinary Research

Alexander Grahofer¹  Arianna Maiolini²  Veronika Maria Stein²  Felix Giebels²  Urs Geissbühler³  Anna Oevermann⁴  Philipp Olias⁵  Peter Kuhnert⁶ 

[1] Clinic for Swine, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern;Division of Clinical Neurology, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern;Division of Clinical Radiology, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Vetsuisse-Faculty, University of Bern;Division of Neurological Sciences, Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health, Vetsuisse-Faculty, University of Bern;Institute of Animal Pathology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern;Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern;

关键词: Diskospondylitis;    Abscess;    Porcine;    DNA sequence analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12917-020-02656-1

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Osteomyelitis is relatively frequent in young pigs and a few bacterial species have been postulated to be potential causative agents. Although Actinobacillus (A.) pleuropneumoniae has been sporadically described to cause osteomyelitis, typically, actinobacillosis is characterized by respiratory symptoms. Nevertheless, subclinical infections are a challenging problem in pig herds. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first case description that reports clinical, diagnostic imaging, pathological and histopathological findings of vertebral osteomyelitis in a pig and first describes A. pleuropneumoniae as the causative agent identified by advanced molecular methods. Case presentation An eight-week-old female weaner was presented with a non-ambulatory tetraparesis. The neurological signs were consistent with a lesion in the C6-T2 spinal cord segments. Imaging studies revealed a collapse of the seventh cervical vertebral body (C7) with a well demarcated extradural space-occupying mass ventrally within the vertebral canal severely compressing the spinal cord. Post-mortem examination identified an abscess and osteomyelitis of C7 and associated meningitis and neuritis with subsequent pathological fracture of C7 and compression of the spinal cord. In the microbiological analysis, A. pleuropneumoniae was identified using PCR and DNA sequence analysis. Conclusions A. pleuropneumoniae can be responsible for chronic vertebral abscess formation with subsequent pathological fracture and spinal cord compression in pigs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown