Diarrhea

A. History

  • Provide information on herd/flock size, animal age (mandatory for bacterial culture in order to ensure testing for ETEC), numbers of animals affected, onset/duration of problem, vaccination history, and any treatment administered.

B.  Selecting and submitting samples

  • For best results, select acutely affected, untreated animals for sampling, OR submit feces from same.
  • Live, acutely affected, untreated piglets, young ruminants (<40 kg), and rabbits may be submitted for postmortem examination.  **Please call the lab first to arrange and ensure arrival PRIOR to 15:00 h. Live animals must be transported humanely.
  • Rapid tissue fixation of gut sections for histology is critical, preferably <10 min after death.
  • Since intestinal lesions may be segmental, always collect multiple intestinal tissue samples for histology, preferably 3 segments each of ileum and jejunum, and one each of duodenum, cecum, colon and stomach. Partially snip open one end of 1-2 cm gut sections with scissors to expose mucosa prior to immersion in formalin.
  • Please request specific tests, and submit separate tissue samples, in separate labeled Whirl-Pak bags, for each lab section and test requested.  Alternatively, ask for pathologist to select tests as appropriate.

C.  Samples required:

Swine enteritis

Lab Tests

Specimen type/volume 

Collection protocol
Bacteriology
  • Bacterial culture, fecal, porcine (cultsfe) – animal age required
  • feces, small and large intestine, mesenteric lymph node
  • Porcine bacteriology enteric panel 1 (pentpa1) – up to 14 weeks of age
    • E. coli & ETEC genotyping for 2 isolates
    • Salmonella spp.
    • Clostridium perfringens
  • feces, small and large intestine
  • Brachyspira PCR porcine panel (brpcr)
    • B. hyodysenteriae
    • B. pilisicoli
    • B. hampsonii clades I and II
  • feces, oral fluid, large intestine (colon preferred)
  • C. difficile culture, fecal (cdiff)
  • C. difficile toxins A&B ELISA (clodf)
  • feces or intestinal content (colon)
Histology
  • Histology food (hist)
  • Immunohistochemistry is available on formalin-fixed tissues for TGEV, PCV-2, Lawsonia

Formalin fixed:

  • esophagus, stomach, mesenteric lymph node, duodenum,. jejunum, ileum with Peyer’s patch, cecum, colon including any area with gross lesions
  • remember to collect multiple sections from jejunum and ileum

Routine tissues (filtering organs):

kidney, liver, lung, spleen
Parasitology
  • Fecal flotation (fflot) – optional, histology can be diagnostic for coccidia
  • feces (golf ball volume)
Serology
  • TGEV differentiating antibody ELISA (pcve2)
  • sera from dam, surviving litter/herd mates
Virology
  • Coronaviruses TGEV, PEDV,  PDCoV triplex PCR (pcovpcr)
  • rectal swabs in virus transport medium, small intestine
  • Rotavirus A,B,C PCR (rotapcr)
  • feces, small intestine
  • PCV-1,2,3 PCR (pcv123)

Bovine enteritis

Lab Tests

Specimen type/volume

Collection protocol
Bovine neonatal enteric panel

Includes testing for: (bentpnl)

  • bovine coronavirus PCR / rotavirus group A and B
  • sucrose wet mount
  • bacterial culture
  • feces – split into 3 separate sterile vials for distribution to the lab sections, if done at AHL an extra splitting charge will be applied
Bacteriology
  • Culture, food animal (cultf) – animal age required
  • feces, large and small intestine, mesenteric lymph node, any other tissues with visible lesions
  • Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (Johne’s disease) PCR (jpcr)
  • feces, ileum, mesenteric lymph nodes
  • E. coli, ETEC food animal – genotyping (ecolf)
  • E. coli, VTEC food animal – genotyping (vtecf)
  • Feces, intestine
Histology
  • Histology, food animal (hist)
  • Immunohistochemistry is available on formalin-fixed tissues for BVDV, BCV, bovine rotavirus – note that BVDV IHC is NOT available for routine PI screening
  • Formalin fixed: esophagus, forestomachs, abomasum, mesenteric lymph node, duodenum, jejunum, ileum with Peyer’s patch, spiral colon and cecum, including any area with gross lesions
  • Also include routine tissues: e.g. filtering organs liver, kidney, spleen, lung
  • Remember to collect multiple sections from jejunum and ileum
Molecular Biology
  • Cryptosporidium PCR (crypto)
  • feces
Parasitology
  • Sucrose wet mount (sucwt) – Cryptosporidium
  • Fecal flotation (fflot) – coccidia, gastrointestinal nematodes
  • feces
Serology
  • BCV VN (bcv)
  • BVDV type 1 NADL VN (bvdn)
  • BVDV type 1 Singer VN (bvds)
  • BVDV type 2 NVSL VN (bvd2)
  • paired sera
Virology
  • BVDV PCR (bvdrt)
  • For further details of BVDV testing, see LabNote 1 – Summary of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) testing at the AHL
  • EDTA blood for acute BVD
  • serum for PI
  • tissue with lesion, feces
 
  • Rotavirus A and B PCR, Coronavirus PCR (rocopcr)
  • feces, ileum, spiral colon

 

Sheep/goat enteritis

 

Lab Tests

Specimen type/volume

Collection protocol
Bacteriology
  • Culture, food animal (cultffe) – animal age required
  • feces, large and small intestine
  • Clostridium perfringens type D enterotoxemia culture and PCR genotyping (cperf)
  • feces or intestine
  • Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (Johne’s disease) PCR (jpcr)
  • feces, ileum, mesenteric lymph nodes
Histology
  • Histology, food animal (hist)
  • Immunohistochemistry is available on formalin-fixed tissues for BVDV, BCV, bovine rotavirus – note that BVDV IHC is NOT available for routine PI screening
  • Formalin fixed: esophagus, forestomachs, abomasum, mesenteric lymph node, duodenum, jejunum, ileum with Peyer’s patch, spiral colon and cecum, including any area with gross lesions
  • Also include routine tissues: e.g. filtering organs liver, kidney, spleen, lung
  • Remember to collect multiple sections from jejunum and ileum
Molecular Biology
  • Cryptosporidium PCR (crypto)
  • feces
Parasitology
  • Sucrose wet mount (sucwt) – Cryptosporidium
  • Fecal flotation (fflot) – coccidia, gastrointestinal nematodes
  • feces
Serology
  • Johne’s disease AGID (xjoha)
  • serum
Virology
  • Rotavirus A and B PCR, Coronavirus PCR (rocopcr)
  • feces, ileum, spiral colon

Dog/cat enteritis

Lab Tests

Specimen type/volume

Collection protocol
Canine diarrhea panel (candp)

Includes testing for:

  • Campylobacter coli, C. jejuni
  • Clostridium difficile toxins A/B
  • Clostridium perfringens CPA (quantification), CPE (quantification), NetE and NetF toxins
  • Salmonella spp.
  • Canine distemper virus
  • Canine parvovirus 2
  • Canine enteric coronavirus
  • Cryptosporidium spp.
  • Giardia duodenalis
  • feces or intestinal content – split into 3 separate sterile vials for distribution to the lab sections, if done at AHL an extra splitting charge will be applied
Feline diarrhea panel (feldp)

Includes testing for:

  • Campylobacter coli, C. jejuni
  • Clostridium perfringens, CPA (quantification) and CPE (quantification) toxins
  • Salmonella spp.
  • Tritrichomonas fetus
  • Feline panleukopenia
  • Cryptosporidium spp.
  • Giardia duodenalis
  • Toxoplasma gondii
  • feces or intestinal content – split into 3 separate sterile vials for distribution to the lab sections, if done at AHL an extra splitting charge will be applied
Bacteriology
  • Bacterial culture, fecal, companion/other (cultnfe)
  • feces, small and large intestine, mesenteric lymph node
  • swabs are not recommended as they provide little fecal material resulting in the inability to run the toxin ELISAs
Histology
  • Histopathology, companion/other (histcm3)
  • Immunohistochemistry is available on formalin-fixed tissues for canine parvovirus, feline parvovirus (panleukopenia), canine/feline coronavirus, canine distemper virus

Formalin fixed:

  • esophagus, stomach, mesenteric lymph node, duodenum, jejunum, ileum with Peyer’s patch, cecum, colon including any area with gross lesions
  • remember to collect multiple sections from jejunum and ileum

Routine tissues (filtering organs):

  • kidney, liver, lung, spleen
Molecular Biology
  • Tritrichomonas fetus PCR (tfpcr)
  • Giardia duodenalis genotyping (ggpcr)
  • Toxoplasma gondii PCR (toxopcr)
  • feces
Parasitology
  • Fecal flotation (flotn)
  • Tritrichomonas fetus culture (tfcf)
  • Giardia antigen ELISA (gia)
  • feces
Virology
  • Canine parvovirus 2 PCR (pv2mb)
  • Feline parvovirus (panleukopenia PCR) (pv2mb)
  • feces, small intestine

 

Rabbit enteritis

Note: Submission of 3 live, affected and untreated rabbits for postmortem examination is recommended.

Lab Tests

Specimen type/volume

Collection protocol
Bacteriology
  • Bacterial culture, fecal, companion/other (cultnfe)
  • Clostridium spiroforme smears
  • Lawsonia intracellularis PCR (lapcn)
  • ileum, cecum, feces
Histology
  • Histopathology, companion/other (histcm3)

Formalin fixed:

  • duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, cecal appendix, proximal (sacculated) and distal colon including any area with gross lesions, stomach, mesenteric lymph node
  • collect intestinal sections into small formalin containers individually labelled with the anatomic location
  • remember to collect multiple sections from jejunum and ileum
  • kidney, liver, lung, spleen
Parasitology
  • Fecal flotation (flotn) for coccidia
  • feces

 

Equine enteritis

 

Lab Tests

Specimen type/volume

Collection protocol

Equine foal diarrhea PCR panel (fdpcrp)

  • for horses <1 year of age

Includes testing for:

  • Salmonella spp.
  • C. perfringens enterotoxin
  • C. perfringens beta-2 toxin
  • C. perfringens toxin F
  • C. difficile toxin B
  • Lawsonia intracellularis
  • Neorickettsia risticii
  • N. findlayensis
  • Rhodococcus equi
  • Equine coronavirus,
  • Equine rotavirus
  • feces – split into 3 separate sterile vials for distribution to the lab sections, if done at AHL an extra splitting charge will be applied

Equine adult diarrhea PCR panel (adpcrp)

  • for adult horses >1 year of age

Includes testing for:

  • Salmonella spp.
  • C. perfringens enterotoxin
  • C. difficile toxin B
  • Equine coronavirus
  • Neorickettsia risticii
  • N. findlayensis
  • feces – split into 3 separate sterile vials for distribution to the lab sections, if done at AHL an extra splitting charge will be applied
Bacteriology
  • Equine fecal culture (cultnf1)
  • C. difficile toxins A&B ELISA (clodn)
  • Lawsonia intracellularis PCR (lapcn)
  • feces, large & small intestine, mesenteric lymph node
  • Swabs are not recommended as they do not provide enough fecal material to run the toxin ELISAs
Histology
  • Histopathology (histcm3)

Formalin fixed:

  • any area with gross lesions
  • collect multiple sections from jejunum and ileum
  • filtering organs: kidney, liver, lung, spleen
Molecular biology
  • Potomac horse fever PCR (phfpc)
  • feces, blood
Parasitology
  • Fecal egg count – McMaster (fecm)
  • feces
Virology
  • Rotavirus/coronavirus PCR (rocopcr)
  • feces, colon

 

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