2022/04/14, 16:16 - Ean van den Berg: Any ideas on this? 2022/04/14, 16:19 - Douw Grobler: Ean. Best to give some history as well. I do not think it is Anthrax if that is what you are thinking 2022/04/14, 16:23 - Ean van den Berg: Brahman bull. Owner found it in veld. Saw it last on Monday. I did not open the carcass as it was already severely autolysed. I suspected Sponssiekte due to the rapid and severely swollen carcass 2022/04/14, 16:27 - Henry Labuschagne: Take smear from tail tip. If you see Clostrdia, it is Sponssiekte. History of clostridia vaccinations? 2022/04/14, 16:29 - Johan Wessel: Clostridia...agree with Douw. 2022/04/14, 16:31 - Ean van den Berg: I suspected it, just wanted to confirm. Thanks all 2022/04/14, 16:31 - Ean van den Berg: Vaccinations are up to date. But you never know 2022/04/14, 16:36 - Erik Verryne: Johan Steyl, please correct me if I am wrong. If there is severe advanced autolysis, are you not going to see clostridia in the blood smear despite cause of death? I agree it is Clostridia on the smear but is it the cause of death? 2022/04/14, 16:49 - Johan Wessel: It's not necessarily the cause of death Erik...but it's Clostridia on smear. 2022/04/14, 16:51 - Johan Wessel: It's not Bacillus. 2022/04/14, 16:51 - Erik Verryne: Ok. I am with you and agree Johan. I thought here was a preliminary dx of clostridia based on the smear and vaccination history 2022/04/14, 19:44 - Johan Steyl: Jip. Ean Clostridia sp. Rule of thumb for histotoxic clostridia is that they are shorter then PM clostridia. They often also have terminal spores and don’t form chains as in these images. In addition, look for few leukocytes also on impression. Although never many, you should see at least some monocytes or neutrophils in the vicinity of the suspicious organisms. The blood smear should also show significant monocytic activation i.e vacuolation, since the animal dies of bacterial toxaemia. 2022/04/14, 20:48 - Johan Steyl: Also. Finding clostridia on the blood smear invariably means they are postmortal since they are anaerobic and should thus not circulate in a live animal. They die from toxaemia NOT from bacteraemia as opposed to anthrax. My earlier comments refer to tissue impression smears. Liam Theuns Smit : Johan Jacobs : I agree with Douw. Anthrax has more square edges/ corners and usually do not appear in long strings. This is probably Clostridia. Anthrax : Ulf Tubessing : One does get strings of anthrax - so-called bamboo stick appearance. Erik Verrynne: And you typically also see ghost cells with Anthrax due to the tick capsule.
