Ileocolitis Associated with Anaerobiospirillum in Cats

Authors

H. E. V. De Cock, University of California, Davis, California
S. L. Marks, University of California, Davis, California
B. A. Stacy, University of California, Davis, California
T. S. Zabka, University of California, Davis, California
J. Burkitt, University of California, Davis, California
G. Lu, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
David J. Steffen, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Gerald E. Duhamel, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

6-2004

Comments

Published in JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY, June 2004, p. 2752–2758 Vol. 42, No. 6. Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. Used by permission.

Abstract

Ileocolitis associated with spiral bacteria identified as an Anaerobiospirillum sp. was found in six cats. Two cats had acute onset of gastrointestinal signs characterized by vomiting and diarrhea in one cat and vomiting in another cat, one cat had chronic diarrhea that was refractory to medical therapy; one cat had acute onset of anorexia and lethargy, and two cats had clinical signs that were not related to the gastrointestinal tract. The presence of an Anaerobiospirillum sp. was demonstrated on the basis of ultrastructural morphology of spiral bacteria associated with intestinal lesions and PCR amplification of a genus-specific 16S rRNA gene from affected tissues from each cat. The colons of three clinically healthy cats without lesions and one cat with mild colitis not associated with spiral bacteria were negative for Anaerobiospirillum spp. in the same assay. Comparative nucleotide sequence analysis of cloned PCR products from three affected cats further suggested that the spiral bacteria were closely related to Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens.