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Biomedical subjects

K Whitwell

Publications and source records attributed to K Whitwell.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Evidence that the agent of equine grass sickness may reach neurons by retrograde axonal transport.

Sera from acute and chronic cases of natural grass sickness or normal horses were injected into the parotid salivary gland of ponies. This gland receives its sympathetic innervation from the ipsilateral cranial cervical ganglion. None of the ponies showed any local or systemic signs of illness. After one week the cranial cervical ganglia, stellate and coeliaco-mesenteric ganglia were removed for histological study. Pathological changes were found only in the cranial cervical ganglion ipsilateral to a parotid salivary gland which had received an injection of grass sickness serum. Four out of five batches of test sera from cases of acute natural grass sickness were associated with chromatolytic changes in neurons; the remaining batch of serum produced no abnormalities. The most severe chromatolytic changes were induced by two samples obtained from horses whose signs of grass sickness had been present for less than 12 hours. A serum sample from a chronic case of grass sickness of three weeks duration did not produce chromatolysis but was associated with a moderately severe inflammatory infiltrate and neuronophagia in the ipsilateral cranial cervical ganglion. One batch of serum was size fractionated to separate components with molecular weights above or below 30 kDa. Only the fraction containing components above 30 kDa induced chromatolytic changes.

Acute Disease↗

The epidemiology of contagious equine metritis (CEM) in England 1977--1978).

Following an outbreak of CEM in England during 1977 a Code of Practice was introduced to control the disease in 1978. The Code recommended a bacteriological screening programme for Thoroughbred mares and stallions and improved standards of hygiene on the stud farm. As a result of the implementation of the Code a number of asymptomatic carrier mares was detected. Stallions which had transmitted CEM in 2977 and were treated did not transmit the disease during 1978. Two small outbreaks of CEM were reported during the 1978 breeding season.

Animals↗

An investigation into the genetics of 'wobbler disease' in thoroughbred horses in Britain.

Sixty-seven TB horses in Britain suffering from clinical wobbler disease were divided into 5 groups, based on the presence or absence of pathological lesions and their nature. These groups were compared genetically with a control group of 67 TBs known not to exhibit signs of wobbling. Though analysed for both simple and complex modes of inheritance no evidence of a genetic basis was found in any group. The high breed incidence in TBs may be real or apparent. Considerably more male than female wobblers are reported. Other forms of possibly inherited ataxia in equidae are reviewed and reference is made to pathologically comparable conditions occurring in man and in the large breeds of dogs.

Animals↗