Pathological findings and diagnostic implications of a rhesus macaque (Macacca mulatta) model of aerosol-exposure to Burkholderia mallei (glanders).

Pathological findings and diagnostic implications of a rhesus macaque (Macacca mulatta) model of aerosol-exposure to Burkholderia mallei (glanders). J Med Microbiol. 2015 Apr 7; Authors: Yingst SL, Facemire P, Chuvala L, Norwood D, Wolcott M, Huzella L Abstract Burkholderia mallei is a Gram-negative bacillus that causes a pneumonic disease known as glanders in equids and humans and a lymphatic infection known as farcy, primarily in equids. With the potential to infect humans by the respiratory route, aerosol exposure can result in severe, occasionally fatal, pneumonia. Today, glanders infections in humans are rare, likely due to less frequent contact with infected equids than in the past. Acutely ill humans often have nonspecific clinical signs and in order to diagnose cases, especially in scenarios of multiple cases in an unexpected setting, rapid diagnostics for B. mallei may be critical. The pathogenesis of acute glanders in the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) was studied as an initial effort to improve diagnostic methods. In the study described here, the diagnostic techniques of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), culture, and histopathology were compared. The results indicate that PCR may provide rapid, non-invasive diagnosis of glanders in some cases. As expected, PCR results were positive in lung tissue in 11 of 12 acutely infected rhesus macaques, but more importantly in terms of diagnostic algorithm development, PCR results wer...
Source: Journal of Medical Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: J Med Microbiol Source Type: research