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- Author or Editor: James L. Bowman x
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Abstract
Objective—To determine efficacy of a commercially available hyperimmune plasma product for prevention of naturally acquired pneumonia caused by Rhodococcus equiin foals.
Design—Randomized clinical trial.
Animals—165 foals.
Procedure—Foals were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups (hyperimmune plasma or nontreated controls). Foals with failure of passive transfer (FPT) of immunity were treated with hyperimmune plasma and evaluated as a third group. Foals that received plasma were given 950 ml between 1 and 10 days of age and between 30 and 50 days of age. A tracheobronchial aspirate was obtained from foals with clinical signs of respiratory tract disease for bacteriologic culture.
Results—A significant difference in incidence of pneumonia caused by R equi in foals with adequate passive transfer was not detected between foals that received plasma (19.1%) and nontreated foals (30%). Of 13 foals without FPT that received plasma and developed pneumonia caused by R equi, 12 developed disease prior to administration of the second dose of hyperimmune plasma. Incidence of undifferentiated pneumonia of all causes was not different between groups.
Conclusion and Clinical Relevance—Intravenous administration of the commercially available hyperimmune plasma was safe, and the product contained high concentrations of anti-R equi antibodies. However, within this limited foal population, the difference in incidence of pneumonia caused by R equi observed between foals that received plasma and control foals was not significant. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2002;220:59–63)
Abstract
Objective—To evaluate WBC concentration, plasma fibrinogen concentration, and an agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test for early identification of Rhodococcus equi-infected foals.
Design—Prospective study.
Animals—162 foals from a farm with enzootic R equi infection.
Procedure—Blood samples were obtained from each foal at 4-week intervals for measurement of WBC and plasma fibrinogen concentrations and at 2-week intervals for detection of anti-R equi antibody by an AGID assay. Diagnostic performance of WBC and fibrinogen concentrations was assessed by use of receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. For each assay, sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were calculated at various cutoff points; bacteriologic culture of R equi from a tracheobronchial aspirate was used as the reference standard test.
Results—Diagnostic performance of WBC concentration was significantly higher than that of fibrinogen concentration. Sensitivity and specificity of measurement of WBC concentration at a cutoff of 13,000 cells/µL were 95.2 and 61.2%, respectively; at a cutoff of 15,000 cells/µL, sensitivity was 78.6% and specificity was 90.8%. When a positive test result was used as the cutoff, sensitivity of the AGID assay was 62.5% and specificity was 53.8%.
Conclusion and Clinical Relevance—Monitoring WBC concentration is a useful approach for early detection of infected foals on farms with a high prevalence of R equi pneumonia. In contrast, serologic surveillance by use of an AGID assay is of little benefit for that purpose. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2003;222:775–781)
