2013 Young Scientist Award Winners Deborah Gow and Sanne Dolieslager

Deborah Gow: investigating feline immunity
The 2013 AMYSA for Basic Research was presented to Deborah (Debbie) Gow, a PhD student at the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh (UK), for her work on the feline colony stimulating factor (CSF-1) and its receptor, CSF-1R.

Deborah’s work demonstrated that feline macrophages can

GUIDELINE for Poxvirus infections in cats

Cowpox virus has a wide host spectrum including man (zoonosis!) and occurs predominantly in small rodents.

Cats with rodent contact are at risk to become infected.

Skin lesions are predominantly found on the head and paws.

GUIDELINE for Infectious diseases in shelter situations and their management

Synopsis
In shelter situations, infectious diseases are difficult to prevent and control, thus, they spread quickly (Möstl et al., 2013). In addition, shelters are unstable biological environments;

GUIDELINE for Dermatophytosis, ringworm in cats

In contrast to single-celled yeasts, dermatophytes (literally: “skin plants”) are complex fungi growing as hyphae and forming a mycelium. Almost 40 species belonging to the genera Microsporum, Trichophyton and Epidermophyton are considered as dermatophytes.

GUIDELINE for Babesiosis

Babesiosis is a tick-borne protozoal disease affecting domestic and wild animals and humans worldwide. Babesiosis is caused by parasites of the genus Babesia belonging to protozoan piroplasms (Alvarado-Rybak et al., 2016).

GUIDELINE for Feline Leishmaniosis

After malaria and lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniosis is the third most important vector-borne disease in people;

GUIDELINE for Toxoplasma gondii infection

Toxoplasma gondii infection is common in cats, but the clinical picture is rare. Up to 50% of cats, especially free-roaming ones, have antibodies indicating infection and the presence of cystic stages. Clinical signs usually appear when cats become immunosuppressed – in these situations, cystic stages can be reactivated.

GUIDELINE for Giardiasis

Giardia is a protozoal parasite that infects the small intestine of cats and can cause diarrhoea. The biotypes considered as feline specific biotypes do not appear to infect humans, but zoonotic biotypes (isolated from human cases) are frequently found in cats.

GUIDELINE for Tritrichomoniasis

Tritrichomonas foetus is a protozoan organism that can cause predominantly large intestinal diarrhoea in cats. It is specific to cats, distinct from other Tritrichomonas species and not considered to be zoonotic. Infection is most common in young cats from multicat households, particularly pedigree breeding catteries.

GUIDELINE for Cryptococcosis in Cats

Feline cryptococcosis is caused by basidiomycetous yeasts of the genus Cryptococcus belonging to the C. neoformans-C.

GUIDELINE for Aspergillosis

Aspergillosis is a sporadic mycosis that occurs worldwide in mammals and birds. Similar to the disease in humans, aspergillosis in cats can be classified by anatomic location, invasiveness, duration of infection, host immune status, pathology, and pathogenesis.

GUIDELINE for Feline bartonellosis

The pathogenic role of many Bartonella spp. as pathogens of humans and domestic animals is still unknown. Bartonella henselae is the causative agent of cat scratch disease (CSD) in humans, a self-limiting regional lymphadenopathy and cats are its main reservoir host.

GUIDELINE for Mycobacterioses in cats

Mycobacteria are intracellular, acid-fast, slow-growing bacilliform Gram-positive aerobic bacteria, highly resistant to environmental conditions (Greene and Gunn-Moore, 2006; Gunn-Moore, 2010). Mycobacterial taxonomy is complex, and many species can infect cats and cause different clinical presentations.

GUIDELINE for Francisella tularensis infection

This bacterial species was discovered in ground squirrels in Tulare County, California, in 1911. Tularaemia is a potentially fatal zoonosis mostly found in the Northern hemisphere.

GUIDELINE for Plague due to Yersinia pestis

The plague is currently endemic in many parts of the world and foci of plague occur in Asia, Africa and the Americas in semiarid areas where flea vectors are active all year round and rodent reservoirs are abundant (Valles et al., 2020).

Currently most of human cases occur in

GUIDELINE for Leptospira spp. infection in cats

Leptospires are mobile, thin, filamentous bacteria of a size of 6.0-25.0 mm length and 0.1-0.2 mm width, that appear as fine spirals often with hook-shaped ends (Fig. 1) (Bharti et al., 2003; Adler and de la Pena Moctezuma, 2010).

GUIDELINE for Coxiellosis – Q fever in cats

Coxiella burnetii is a Gram-negative, obligate intracellular, small, pleomorphic bacterium belonging to the order Legionellales. This organism has a complicated life cycle with different morphological stadia. It may occur as a small-cell variant and a large-cell variant.

GUIDELINE for Pasteurella multocida infection

Pasteurella multocida, a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, non-spore-forming pleomorphic coccobacillus, is a commensal bacterium and part of the natural flora in the nasopharynx and upper respiratory tract of the cat (Freshwater, 2008;

Pigmented flat cutaneous papillomas (photo Herman Egberink, Ph.D. thesis Utrecht)

GUIDELINE for Feline viral papillomatosis

Papillomaviruses cause cutaneous lesions in man and several animal species, including cats (Munday, 2010). In each host different papillomavirus types exist, which is also true for cats (Munday, 2008).

GUIDELINE for Aujeszky’s Disease – Pseudorabies in cats

The natural hosts of ADV are domestic and wild suids. The clinical signs in these animals include respiratory, reproductive and neurological signs, depending on the age of the animal. Like other herpesviruses, ADV produces a latent infection in the host.