Veterinary Services

An adult female wallaby aged approximately four years appeared to be healthy one evening but could not use its hindlegs the following morning and died shortly afterwards. Other animals in the group had shown signs of pneumonia. Postmortem examination of the animal that died revealed multiple areas of discrete and coalescing green discolouration of the muscles of the upper legs. Two dark foci of consolidation were also present in the lungs. Anaerobic cultures yielded heavy growths of Fusobacterium necrophorum from the affected muscles and lung nodules, and histopathology demonstrated a necrotizing myositis and pneumonia associated with intralesional Gram-negative filamentous bacterial rods. Infection with Fusobacterium necrophorum is a fairly common cause of death of wallabies (Smith et al 1986 Veterinary Record 118, 691-693).

Horses

Equine herpes virus type 1 was identified as the cause of two aborted warmblood foals that were submitted as part of an investigation into losses in a group of mares. Three mares in the group of 13 had aborted over a five day period. A fourth mare foaled successfully. All mares had been served by AI and none had received any vaccinations.
Necropsy of the foetuses was unremarkable except for the presence of small white lesions scattered throughout the lung parenchyma of one foal and markedly enlarged adrenal glands in the second foal. PCR screening of material from both foals was positive for equine herpes virus type 1 (EHV-1) DNA. No EHV-4 DNA was detected.