In this issue – March 2018

The subject of the commentary is a case study of occupational exposure to ketamine in a human medical anaesthesiologist.1 This may be a little unusual for a veterinary journal, but it has direct relevance to any veterinarian who administers ketamine to their animal patients, because they will have relatively high occupational exposures to ketamine and may find themselves in the same situation as this medical doctor. The doctor was undergoing compulsory drug testing after he had been confirmed to be addicted to propofol and fentanyl. Scalp hair samples were positive for ketamine, at levels that were likely to have been from systemic occupational exposure. Systemic absorption of ketamine has been documented in veterinarians, probably from mixing drug preparations in syringes, and it is likely that this could be an issue for any potential drugs of addiction. This retrospective analysis examines levels of Sarcocystis spp., cysticercosis and hydatidosis in Tasmanian slaughter sheep using data maintained for the National Sheep Health Management Project.2 The study highlights the leading role of the Australian veterinary profession and sheep industry in national recording of endemic diseases and other conditions of sheep. During 2007–2013, data were collected for over 350,000 Tasmanian adult slaughter sheep inspected at nine abattoir locations across Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia. Overall, a very low level of hydatid disease was recorded. A relatively high prevalence of Sarcocystis spp. (14.2%) was recorded and there were significant between-abattoir differences in the prevalence of sarcosporidosis and Cysticercus ovis recorded in slaughter sheep from Tasmania. These preliminary findings highlight the importance of high quality abattoir registrations and the potential for using abattoir feedback for national disease surveillance and for informing preventative flock health and management strategies in individual flocks. The authors note that they have applied the principles of STROBE (for the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology) to guide reporting of their methods, analysis and interpretation of the findings. I highly recommend this approach when authors are planning their experiments, as well as when they are writing up the data. The second production animal study sought to determine if pre-milking teat disinfection would be a worthwhile practice under Australian conditions in a herd that had shown increased udder contamination.3 The authors chose the herd specifically because of its high incidence of environmental mastitis, following on from of a previous study by Morton and coworkers,4 which suggested that pre-milking teat disinfection was most likely to be beneficial under these conditions. The current authors, however, found a significant but biologically unexpected increase in clinical mastitis incidence in the treatment group. The authors suggest that the effectiveness is liable to vary greatly between herds and because the critical factors for its success are unknown, they cannot recommend pre-milking teat disinfection for wholesale use throughout the Australian dairy industry (as it currently is for herds in the USA, Canada, UK and Europe). A paper from the equine medicine and surgery clinic in Lüsche in Germany describes their successful results in 8 horses with fractured splint bones that had internal fixation using bioabsorbable screws.5 In horses, these fractures are generally treated by removing the distal portion of the bone with or without internal fixation using metallic screws. This may result in postoperative infection, and a second surgery to remove the screws. Bioabsorbable implants are used increasingly in human orthopaedic surgery. Of these 8 horses, 6 returned to full work within 3 months. The authors show clear radiographs of the absorption in situ and describe the advantages of the technique. Spontaneous remission (SR) of cancer is very uncommon, and although it has been documented in a small number of animals previously, to the author's knowledge this this is the first report of SR in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a cat without FeLV.6 The author references case reports in a cat and a horse; however, this is such a rare phenomenon that reporting it again is of relevance, albeit a little limited. The difference between this case report and previous cases is the emphasis on and clarity in the description of the mechanism of this phenomenon. The tumour was examined extensively to confirm the diagnosis. Because of the regression of one mass, the author requested second opinions on the histology, immunohistochemistry and PCR at two different laboratories. The SR in this case was unique because it was short and temporary, and the author discusses the lack of evidence as to whether early treatment should still be given in cases of apparently complete regression. This paper reports on the technique and outcome of 1400 kangaroos that underwent laparoscopic ovariectomy as a population management technique over an 8-year period in western Sydney.7 Laparoscopic ovariectomy was proposed as a terminal sterilisation technique. The animals were given a general anaesthetic, transported to a hospital, intubated, and underwent laparoscopic ovariectomy. The authors reported an overall mortality of 2% (30 animals), with 4 anaesthetic deaths, 7 surgical deaths (haemorrhage or GI tract rupture), 14 from ill health, 2 from predators and 3 other causes. One of the unusual postoperative complications was pouch eversion, probably from subcutaneous emphysema that collected in the subcutaneous space during the surgical procedure. A clinical report describes the pathological and molecular investigation of the deaths of captive black cockatoos in south-east Queensland.8 These birds are becoming more common in captivity in Australia and several species and populations are threatened in the wild. Plasmodium infections have been implicated as a significant threat to isolated wild bird populations and as a challenge for managing some zoological species. The manuscript includes photomicrographs of histological lesions, including schizonts, and will be of significant value to the pathological diagnosis of Plasmodium infection in other cases in parrots. The authors raise some important points on the emergence and diagnosis of avian malaria in captive birds; in particular, the significance of novel exposure to vectors by birds whose normal ecology (especially altitudinal and elevational spatiotemporal activity) prevents such exposure. This paper highlights the importance of native birds as unaffected reservoirs for diverse potentially pathogenic Plasmodium species, as well as the importance of molecular genotyping rather than histology in identifying lineages of haemosporidians infecting novel hosts.

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