Maureen Anderson
Maureen Anderson is currently pursuing her PhD in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph. She grew up in Montreal, Quebec. In 1998 she moved to Guelph, Ontario where she completed her veterinary degree in 2003. Following some time in private practice, she returned to the University of Guelph for graduate studies in infectious disease and a residency in Large Animal Internal Medicine. She completed her thesis on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in horses in December 2007, and earned her board certification with the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM). As a post-doctoral fellow she helped to set up the Worms & Germs Blog and its many resource sheets before beginning her PhD work on infectious disease control practices in veterinary medicine. She lives in Guelph and has two cats named Bonnie and Clyde.
Cat scratch disease info sheet
We've just posted a new info sheet about cat scratch disease (CSD), which is caused by a bacterium (Bartonella henselae) commonly carried in the bloodstream of healthy cats. Signs of CSD in people can be quite non-specific, so (as always) it's important to let your physician know if you've been bitten or scratched by a cat if you're feeling ill, so that CSD is considered. Other than proper training and handling of cats to avoid bites and scratches, the next most important component of CSD prevention is flea control.
You can read more about CSD and B. henselae on the new info sheet, which you can find along with all our other info sheets on the Worms & Germs Resources - Pets page. You can also read about CSD in the posts in our archives.
Equine MRSA in Israel - Different strain, same old tricks
It's been quite a while since the last post about MRSA in horses, but rest assured, it's still out there! Not too surprisingly it's also spreading (or at least starting to be found) in new places. A recent report in Veterinary Microbiology (Schwaber et al, 2013) describes an MRSA outbreak at a large animal teaching hospital in Israel. It is the first report of MRSA colonization in horses in the Middle East, although it's possible (and quite likely) that there's more to be found.
The discovery of the problem had a pretty typical progression: there were two horses in the hospital with post-operative wound infections from which Staphylococcus aureus was cultured, and the isolates from both horses had similar antimicrobial resistance patterns, including resistance to all beta-lactam antimicrobials (= MRSA). Validly concerned about the potential for the MRSA to spread among horses and people in the hospital, an investigation ensued - in this case the National Center for Infection Control (NCIC) was actually called in to coordinate the operation.
- They found MRSA in 12/84 (14.3%) horses, of which 11 were in the hospital at the time of sampling, and 1 had recently been discharged from the hospital. Consider though that 44 of the horses sampled were simply from farms from which an MRSA-positive horse had come - so 11/40 horses in the hospital were positive - that's 27.5%!
- 16/139 (11.5%) of personnel at the teaching hospital were positive for MRSA. Fortunately there were no clinical MRSA infections reported in people.
- The MRSA strain that was found in all the horses and most of the people was a very rare type - not the usual sequence type 8 (ST8) we're used to finding in horses in various other parts of the world. This one was an ST5, spa-type t535, SCCmec type V, which is even rare in the human population.
- The primary action taken to get the outbreak under control: increased infection control measures, including isolation of infected and colonized horses which were then handled with contact precautions (e.g. gloves, gowns), discharging horses from hospital as soon as medically possible to decrease transmission pressure, and having a nurse from the NCIC come in to instruct personnel on the measures to be taken, including emphasis on hand hygiene and increased use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- In this outbreak, decolonization therapy was prescribed for all colonized personnel.
The report does not mention whether or not personnel at the hospital were required to submit to being tested and undergoing decolonization therapy. This can be a very tricky issue to handle, and it depends on what the local laws are. In Canada, employees cannot be forced to undergo testing or treatment, but in some other countries MRSA-positive healthcare workers may not be allowed to even work until their carrier status is cleared.
Interestingly enough, just a year or two before this outbreak occurred a study (as yet unpublished) had been carried out in the same region, during which they found MRSA in 7.2% (6/83) of hospitalized horses and none in horses from local farms. There is no mention regarding whether or not the hospital had taken measures to eradicate MRSA from the facility before the clinical infections that triggered the outbreak investigation occurred.
This was a typical MRSA "iceberg" - a couple of clinical cases were triggers for an investigation that found a lot more horses and people were actually carriers. This is exactly why it's important to remain diligent about infection control measures like hand hygiene at all times, so that pathogens like MRSA don't move in "under the radar." The authors of the paper summed it up nicely (although I'd leave out the part about decolonization):
"Strict implementation of hand hygiene, isolation of colonized and infected horses, decolonization
of colonized personnel and above all, constant education of veterinary students and personnel about the importance of infection control measures are required in order to decrease the risk for colonization and infection of both horses and personnel by MRSA and other pathogens."
More information about MRSA in horses is available on the Worms & Germs Resource - Horses page.
Equine Infectious Anemia: Outbreak Out West
This week an article on TheHorse.com discussed the current situation in the western provinces of Canada with regard to equine infectious anemia (EIA). The prairies are seeing the highest number of EIA cases in years, with more than 70 horses affected on 22 different properties.
Also commonly called "swamp fever," EIA is caused by a retrovirus, similar to the human HIV. There is currently no vaccine against virus, and once infected a horse carries the virus for the rest of its life. Although EIA can cause severe clinical signs (including high fever, weakness, swelling of the lower limbs and along the ventral abdomen, and even sudden death) most horses that are diagnosed are not showing any signs of illness at the time, or may show milder, non-specific signs such as exercise intolerance and intermittent fever. Affected horse of course also have varying degrees of anemia as the name suggests. Episodes of more severe signs can occur even years after the initial infection, and during these episodes an infected animal poses the greatest threat to other horses because the viral load in the bloodstream is very high. The virus cannot be transmitted directly between horses though - it is transmitted by blood, typically via blood-sucking insects like like deer flies, horse flies and stable flies (hence the association of the disease with swamps) or by reuse of needles for injections. Fortunately EIA does not affect humans or any other animal species. It has also not been shown to be transmitted by mosquitoes.
Because infection is life-long, in order to control the disease the only options for positive horses are euthanasia or life-long quarantine in a building with rigorous insect control to prevent spread.
The question is, why the sudden spike in the number of cases out west? There are a few possibilities:
- Possibility #1: There's been one, or a few, small local outbreaks that were initially caused by a very small number of positive horses that likely brought the virus back with them from somewhere to which they had traveled. Hopefully this is the case, and testing has identified all the horses that were subsequently infected so that the virus won't spread further. EIA testing is required prior to travel to many places and prior to participating in many competitions or shows. Regular testing of animals that travel frequently helps to identify infected animals more quickly.
- Possibility #2: For whatever reason, there are a bunch of horses being tested this year that have not been tested in the past, and they're coming up positive. This would be much more concerning, because there's no way to tell how long a horse has been infected if it has not been tested in the past. The longer an infected horse is around outside of a fly-proof quarantine, the greater the chance that an insect (or a needle) will transmit the virus to another horse.
- Possibility #3: There are number of infected horses across the prairies that have not been tested, and the virus has been slowly spreading from these index cases and has finally reached part of the horse population that does get tested regularly. This would be the worst case, as it would mean that there's a reservoir of infected horses that is still not being identified, and could continue to perpetuate the infection.
In the end, only time will tell which of these scenarios (or a combination of them) is playing out in western Canada. Although a relatively low population density (of horses as well as people) in provinces like Saskatchewan helps to decrease the transmission pressure (simply by making it harder for an insect carrying the virus in its mouth parts from one horse to find another horse to bite), gatherings of horses for shows, trail rides and the like (particularly when EIA testing is not required) still create prime opportunities for transmission of the virus.
There are also a few things you can do to help decrease the chances of your horse contracting EIA:
- Protect your horse from biting insects that transmit EIA (which will simultaneously help protect your horse from insects like mosquitoes that can transmit other viruses). Use fly repellants, fly sheets, and avoid turnout during times of peak insect activity (dusk and dawn).
- Never reuse needles, especially between different horses. Also ensure that any other equipment that may be used on your horse (e.g. mouth gags) are always properly cleaned between animals and free from any blood contamination.
- Avoid proximity to horses of unknown EIA status. This can be tough to do if your horse goes to shows where EIA testing is not mandatory, but particularly with the current problems out west (or anywhere else that EIA may be circulating) testing for EIA prior to any event where there will be a gathering of horses should be strongly promoted.
Testing for EIA can be done with a simple blood test. This used to be called a Coggins test, but now a more accurate ELISA-type test is used to test for the disease instead.
Image: Cross-section of the EIA retrovirus (source: USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service)
"Human suicide parasite" in cats
I love my cats. But sometimes when Bonnie and Clyde are living up to their names, puking up hair balls twice a day, peeing on the guest bed (yes, contrary to popular belief even vets can't stop their own cats from doing this sometimes), caterwauling at 3 AM, or begging for food all afternoon, they do make me c-r-a-z-y crazy - but they're not making me suicidal.
In yet another example of how the media will present study results in the manner that will sell the most newspapers or magazines, rather than the way that helps people interpret the results in a logical manner, comes an article entitled "Is Your Cat Hosting a Human Suicide Parasite?" The article talks about a study recently published in the Archives of General Psychiatry (Pedersen et al. 2012) which looked at a cohort of 45 788 women in Denmark who gave birth between 1992-1995, and found a statistically significant association between self-directed violence (including suicide attempts) in these women and their antibody titre to Toxoplasma gondii at the time of birth. The risk in seropositive women was 1.53 times greater than the risk in seronegative women.
Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that is shed in the feces of cats, which are the parasites definitive host. Most house cats only ever shed significant amounts of the parasite the first time they're exposed to the parasite (typically when they're young). Depending on where people live and various cultural practices, transmission of the parasite from scooping out litterboxes may actually be relatively uncommon compared to other possible sources including exposure from soil (e.g. working in the garden and then not washing one's hands), eating unwashed vegetables, or eating some types of undercooked meat.
The most glaring limitation of the Pedersen study is that they didn't control for any other factors that may have resulted in the women who committed acts of self-directed violence being more likely to be seropositive for Toxoplasma than others. For example, women with mental illness may be less likely to practice good hand hygiene (one of the most important factors for reducing the risk of parasite transmission), and therefore more likely to be exposed to Toxoplasma, or there may be other factors about their health or their lifestyle that make them more prone to infection. The point is the authors only found an association in a specific subset of the population (Danish women who had given birth to at least on child). This does not mean that the relationship is causative - they can't say that Toxoplasma infection makes people more prone to self-directed violence, only that women - in this particular group - who were seropositive for the parasite were also at increased risk for this kind of behaviour. It's a somewhat subtle but very important difference. The authors of the study clearly acknowledge the limitations of their work, but the news article does not do quite as good a job of pointing this out, until right at the very end where it does finally get mentioned.
Does Toxoplasma infection cause behavioural changes in rats that may make them more likely to wander into a cat's territory and be eaten? According to an experimental study it can, and it does make a certain amount of ecological sense that the parasite could have an effect on its intermediate host (the rat) that makes it more likely to be able to continue its life cycle (via being eaten by a cat) by reducing fear in the rat. Could infection of the brain in humans cause subtle behavioural changes? I can't deny the possibility, but humans are not rats and I would be very wary of extrapolating results from one species to the other. But is this parasite likely to "drive our brains off the highway" as the news article says? I'm not ready to buy that, certainly not based on this study. As the authors clearly state in the first line of the paper "Suicide is a tragic multifactorial outcome of mental illness, with complex biopsychosocial underpinning..." There are so many things that contribute to such an unfortunate outcome that a lot more work is needed before anyone can justifiably blame a "suicide parasite" in cats.
Whether you believe Toxoplasma infection can result in behavioural changes in people or not, there are some very simple steps everyone can take to help decrease the risk of becoming infected with this parasite regardless. These are particularly important for individuals who are immunosuppressed and women who are pregnant, because it is very well established that toxoplasmosis in these high-risk individuals certainly can have severe repercusions to either the individual or the unborn fetus. However, it is by no means necessary for such individuals to get rid of their cats if they take these simple precautions:
- Clean your cat’s litter box every day. The oocysts shed in cat feces usually take about 24 hours to become infective once they’ve been passed, so daily cleaning helps remove them before they reach this stage.
- Always wash your hands with soap and water after cleaning your cat’s litter box, after working in the garden or in any soil, and after handling raw meat.
- Keep your cat indoors. Outdoor cats are more likely to be exposed to Toxoplasma and shed oocysts in their stool.
- Keep sandboxes covered so outdoor cats don’t contaminate them with stool.
- Cook all meat, especially pork, lamb, mutton and wild game, to an internal temperature of 67ºC/153ºF or higher.
More information about Toxoplasma can be found on the info sheet on the Worms & Germs Resources page.
Murray Valley Encephalitis down-under - Help from the chickens
Although the weather in Southwestern Ontario seems quite confused lately regarding whether it wants to be winter or spring, at least we're still a few months off from having to worry about mosquitoes and the viruses they carry once again. Warmer parts of the world, however, are in the midst of their mosquito season, and some chickens are lending a hand to give people in the area a "heads up" about what's around.
The Health Department of Western Australia has detected Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) in chicken flocks in East Kimberley. The department has also tested and found the virus in its sentinel chickens in Wyndham and Kununurra. These sentinel birds play an important role as an early warning system when viruses like MVEV are circulating in the area. Just like West Nile virus, MVEV typically circulates between birds and the mosquitoes that like to feed on them, but problems occur when the same mosquitoes start to bite people (or other susceptible animals such as horses), particularly when there are a lot of mosquitoes, like when the weather is very wet or when there's been flooding. Although most people who are infected with MVEV or WNV fight off the virus with no difficulty, or may simply develop short-term, non-specific signs of illness like mild fever and malaise, in some people these viruses can cause severe infection of the brain (encephalitis) and may even be fatal.
Knowing that MVEV has been found in these "guardian" chickens lets people know (via warnings issued by the health department) to take extra precautions against mosquito bites, such as:
- Staying indoors during peak mosquito activity - dusk and dawn
- Wearing protective clothing including long-sleeves and long pants
- Applying insect repellent
In North America, you can pretty much substitute West Nile for Murray Valley in a case like this. Sentinel chickens have been used to provide early warnings of circulating WNV here, before cases are detected in people or horses. Another means of early detection that is also used is testing pools of mosquitoes directly.
It just goes to show you can still be an important part of the country's defenses, even if you're a little chicken :p
equIDblog has moved to Worms & Germs!
Unfortunately, because of funding challenges (translation... there was no more money), we were no longer able to maintain our equine infectious disease blog (equIDblog) as a separate site. However, based on the positive feedback we had and the amount of traffic on the original site, we still think it serves a role and are dedicated to maintaining equIDblog in some form. So, we are going to merge equIDblog with the Worms & Germs Blog. We have already moved the equIDblog Resources page, which can be accessed through the link in the title bar. We will also gradually move all of the current archived blog posts from the site and place them under the equIDblog topic category which can be found in the left index bar. Here we will maintain all of the site's current content and continue to provide information and commentary on equine infectious disease issues. Thanks to all of our loyal equIDblog readers for making the blog such a success, and we hope you'll continue to follow us here on the Worms & Germs Blog!
Study Seeking "Superbugs" In Horses
A two-part study (Maddox et al. 2011) was recently published online in the Equine Veterinary Journal looking at antimicrobial resistant "superbugs" in horses in the UK. The first part of the study had the simple objective of estimating the prevalence of both MRSA nasal colonization and fecal shedding of antimicrobial resistant E. coli in the UK horse population. The reason they were looking at E. coli is because this bacterium is part of the normal intestinal flora of most animals (including horses), so it's easy to find, and it is frequently exposed to antimicrobials whenever a horse is treated systemically (i.e. with either oral or injectable antibiotics), so researchers use it as an "indicator" for resistance that may develop in other bacteria as well. E. coli doesn't typically cause gastrointestinal disease in horses like it can in people, nonetheless E. coli is a common cause of uterine, urinary and wound infections in horses, as well as septicemia in foals, and antimicrobial resistant infections in these situations can certainly be a big problem.
Out of 678 nasal swabs (taken from horses on over 500 premises), only 4 (0.6%) were positive for MRSA. That's good to see, as it's very easy for MRSA to spread in a horse population "under the radar," because colonized horses do not have any outward signs that they are carrying the pathogen. The overall low prevalence in the community setting is similar to previous community studies in the UK and other areas. Out of 650 fecal samples, 452 (72.2%) were positive for an E. coli that was resistant to at least one antimicrobial. That's not too surprising. The bigger concern is that 233 (37.6% - over one third of all horses tested) samples contained multidrug-resistant E.coli (defined in this study as resistance to more than three antimicrobial classes) and 42 (6.3%) samples contained an E. coli that produced an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL). ESBLs are particularly problematic because they can be relatively easily transferred between bacteria, they confer resistance to a large number of commonly used antimicrobials in the beta-lactam class (which includes penicillins and cephalosporins), and are frequently associated with genes that confer resistance to other antimicrobial classes as well. Bacteria that produce ESBLs are a significant problem in human medicine and have been reported to cause infection in horses as well.
The second part of the study used information collected from questionnaires filled out by the horse owners to try to determine risk factors that affected the odds of a particular horse shedding antimicrobial-resistant E. coli. They used some pretty heavy-duty statistical analysis because they were looking at so many factors and different outcomes, and any time that happens you have to take the final numbers with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, the results can help point the way for future studies to help determine which factors may have the biggest impact on the risk. The authors found recent hospitalization and veterinary treatment for various conditions over the last six months were associated with higher odds of shedding multidrug-resistant strains of E. coli, and the type of farm/facility also affected the odds. In addition, having a recently hospitalized horse on the premises (among other things) increased the odds of a horse shedding ESBL E.coli.
What does all this mean for the average horse owner? The results really aren't new or startling. We already know that antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem in equine medicine, as it is in veterinary and human medicine in general, and this is one more set of studies that provides evidence to that effect. I have no doubt that if a similar study was performed in North America the same kinds of resistant bacteria would be detected, although the numbers may vary somewhat one way or another. The second part of the study also re-emphasize the role that antimicrobial use plays in promoting development of and selection for resistant bacteria, and the potential for the treatment of certain horses to affect the microbes being carried and shed by the animals around them. In the end, it comes down to being responsible about how we use antimicrobials in order to curb the development of resistance, so that these important drugs remain effective for treating serious infections in the future. This applies equally to their use in people and animals of all kinds.
Who's Better At Biosecurity?
There are a lot of recommendations out there for establishing or improving sound infection control practices on horse farms, many of which can be found on this very blog. Some refer to such practices as "biosecurity," but what's done on horse farms compared to the often very strict biosecurity protocols at facilities such as swine or poultry operations (e.g. all-in all-out management, closed barns, shower in) is very different, so we prefer to call it an infection control program, rather than "biosecurity." Regardless, one of the biggest challenges with regard to infection control, in almost any setting, is getting people to comply with all the various policies and recommendations. Unfortunately, it's not enough to just tell people what needs to be done (that'd be too easy!) - knowledge by itself usually won't change people's behaviour. They also need to be motivated to change their behaviour, for example by the potential for a positive reward (e.g. they get to take their horses to shows) or the potential to avoid a negative outcome (e.g. their horses don't get sick). Furthermore, individuals need to really believe they are capable (physically and mentally) of performing the required tasks - if they don't think they can do it or be effective at it, they're unlikely to try. In reality, getting people to change their behaviour to adopt sound infection control practices can be quite complex.
A study soon to be published in Preventative Veterinary Medicine (Schemann et al. in press) looked at some of the factors that affect horse owners' biosecurity practices and perceptions. The study was performed in Australia one year after the devastating equine influenza outbreak that occurred in 2007, using an online questionnaire to which 759 horse owners responded. Each owner's biosecurity compliance was rated as low (30%), medium (20%) or high (50%) based on how often they reported using 16 different infection control measures.
Factors that were associated with low compliance or poor biosecurity practices included people who:
- were younger in age
- had two or more children
- were not involved with horses commercially
- had no long-term business impact from the 2007 equine flu outbreak
- were not fearful of a future outbreak of equine flu in Australia
- thought their current hygiene and access control practices were not very effective in protecting their horses
Now, studies based on surveys of this kind always need to be taken with a grain of salt, as the study population itself was difficult to define and the information was all self-reported by owners, which can lead to confounding and misclassification bias. Nonetheless, the results are still interesting and on the whole are consistent with behaviour theory. Those whose income and livelihood were not dependent on the horse industry, and those who were not fearful of another outbreak, would be less motivated to put the effort into infection control measures. Furthermore, those who felt that what they were doing already wasn't really effective (for whatever reason) would be less motivated to try harder because they can't see the benefit. It's quite possible (as the authors speculate) that having two or more children results in less compliance with infection control simply due to the time constraints associated with having kids. Lack of time to properly perform infection control procedures is a major barrier to compliance, even in human hospitals, particularly with understaffing issues. The lower compliance among young people is also common to studies looking at protective behaviour in human health, possibly because young people have a sense of certain degree of invulnerability that results in riskier behaviour overall.
When it comes to infection control, the old adage "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" is very important to remember. Although 50% of the horse owners in this study reported having high biosecurity compliance, the 30% with low compliance could ruin all their efforts should another outbreak occur, by contributing to the transmission and propagation of the disease on their own farms as well as to others. Hopefully this study will help the horse industry and government identify specific groups (i.e. young people, those not financially dependent on horses) at which educational and motivational campaigns can be targeted in the future.
More Mosquito-Borne Mayhem
The mosquito-borne diseases eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile (WNV) continue to rear their ugly heads in the northeast as we get further into the late summer season during which they are most common.
On August 13 there was an unconfirmed report of a case of West Nile in a horse at Woodbine Racetrack, just north of Toronto. No additional details have been forthcoming regarding the severity of the infection or the status of the horse, if WNV infection has in fact been diagnosed. Nonetheless, the Ontario HBPA is urging horse owners to ensure the vaccination status of their animals for West Nile is up-to-date. Unfortunately, if horses are not already vaccinated at this point, even vaccinating them immediately may still leave them susceptible to virus for the next few weeks until they are able to fully respond to the vaccine. This news follows close on the heels of news reports regarding increased numbers of WNV-positive mosquito pools in various regions north of Toronto, and thus is not altogether surprising.
The first case of West Nile in a human in New Jersey was recently diagnosed in a man from Mercer County. Again, no additional details about the severity of the infection or the man's condition are available, but the public is once again being urged to protect themselves against mosquitoes by wearing long sleeves and pants, using insect repellant, and eliminating standing water in which mosquitoes may breed on their property. Elsewhere the death on August 14 of a four-year-old girl in New York from infection with EEE has been reported. She is the fifth person in New York state to die from the disease in 40 years. The girl first began showing signs of infection earlier this month, but the diagnosis of EEE infection was only reached last week. EEE has a high mortality rate in humans as well as horses. Just as infection in animals can act as sentinel indicators for disease risk in humans, these human cases indicate that WNV and EEE are active in these respective areas, and humans and horses alike are at risk of infection. Mosquito avoidance can help protect both, and in addition timely vaccination of horses can help decrease the risk of disease.
Lions and tigers and glanders
Glanders, a very serious disease of horses, donkeys and mules caused by infection with the bacterium Burkholderia mallei, has made the news again in a rather unusual manner – it has been reported as the cause of an outbreak in lions and a tiger at an Iranian zoo in Tehran.
The story goes that two Amur tigers arrived at the Tehran zoo from Eastern Russia in April 2010 as part of an exchange program between the two countries. The tigers were supposed to be used to help restore the tiger population in northern Iran on the Miankaleh nature reserve, but their living quarters there were apparently still not ready, and thus they were being kept at the zoo. One of the tigers died in December 2010.
And that’s were the story starts to get a little dicey. The Iranians claim the tigers were imported already carrying the disease, and that the last case of glanders at the zoo was 50 years ago. The tigers had already been at the zoo for eight months - although the incubation period for glanders can be months in some cases, it is normally only weeks. The Russians of course insist that the tigers were completely healthy when they were transferred – they’d been thoroughly examined and quarantined prior to being moved. (This makes the most sense to me, since transporting an animal such a long distance is a major stress and increases the risk of illness, and transporting an animal that is already sick would be even more risky. Not a chance I would take with two members of a species of which there are fewer than 900 individuals left in the world.) They also pointed out that a sick tiger from the cold regions of Russia would be much more likely to succumb to illness during the very hot Iranian summer, not during the winter.
Another report said that three lions at the zoo also died from glanders in the last two months, and subsequently another 14 lions were diagnosed with the disease, all of which were put down by the authorities. The main concern seemed to be the spread of the disease from the big cats to the feral cat population, and then to the human population. This second report states that “the tiger died after being fed contaminated meat, though it is possible it could also be related to the glanders.” Yet another report said that the tiger was infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV - the feline equivalent of HIV).
Facts to keep in mind:
- Glanders is an highly contagious disease, and highly fatal (B. mallei is even classified as a Class B bioterrorism agent).
- Animals that do recover from the disease can become long-term carriers of B. mallei, and are a risk to other animals (and people). Prompt euthanasia of affected animals is therefore often the primary means of controlling outbreaks (but the bacterium is susceptible to antibiotics).
- The infection can be transmitted to other animals (and people), usually through close direct contact or contact with oral and nasal secretions and discharge from skin ulcers. It can also be transmitted by eating tissues from infected animals.
- The bacterium is killed by most disinfectants, and UV radiation (sunlight).
Glanders can affect species other than equids, including people and cats, however there is very little information available about glanders in any felids, let alone lions and tigers. Theoretically it might be possible for the disease to spread from the zoo animals to feral cats and then to people, but I don’t know how many feral cats are brave (or stupid) enough to wander into a lion enclosure. There’s also a possibility that a glanders-positive feral cat may have infected the zoo cats (but again, it would have to be very brave, or very stupid). It is also unclear what tests were used to confirm that the big cats were infected with glanders, and it is unknown if other animals at the zoo have been tested. Since this is typically a disease of equids (and has also been found in goats and camels), I would certainly be checking these animals first.
The big question is, where did the glanders come from in the first place? It seems unlikely that the tigers brought it from Russia, when the disease is actually endemic in Iran (even though they’d had no diagnosed cases at the zoo for many years). Is there a carrier animal in the zoo? Were the animals infected by eating contaminated meat? Was it brought in by feral cats? The source needs to be identified and addressed or animals will continue to be infected, which is particularly bad news for the kinds of rare species that may be found in a zoological collection. Some more details about the testing would also be appreciated – given the severity of this disease, and the severity of the consequences for positive animals (euthanasia), one needs to be as sure as possible that these animals are infected with B. mallei and not something else.
Photo: Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris ssp. altaica) (click image for source)
