A method for reproducing fatal idiopathic colitis (colitis X) in ponies and isolation of a clostridium as a possible agent.
Severe colitis was induced in two ponies after oral pretreatment with clindamycin and lincomycin, followed by intestinal content from two horses which had died from naturally-occurring idiopathic colitis. Two ponies treated with antibiotic alone, and two ponies treated with intestinal content alone, were unaffected. In a further study, three ponies treated on separate occasions with lincomycin, administered orally, died or were destroyed 67 to 72 h after initial treatment. No established salmonella, yersinia or campylobacter pathogens were isolated from these ponies, but a clostridium closely resembling Clostridium cadaveris was isolated as the predominant clostridium from them all and from the colonic content of one of six horses which died from naturally-occurring idiopathic colitis. It was not isolated from six horses with non-fatal diarrhoea. This clostridium is a candidate as an agent of some cases of fatal colitis in horses.
Prescott
J F
JF
Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Staempfli
H R
HR
Barker
I K
IK
Bettoni
R
R
Delaney
K
K
D000818:Animals; D002981:Clindamycin; D003013:Clostridium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D003092:Colitis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D006736:Horses; D007420:Intestine, Large / Q000382:microbiology; D008034:Lincomycin
D002981:Clindamycin; D008034:Lincomycin