Unexpected death involving the spleen - an overview

The spleen is located in the left upper quadrant of the abdominal cavity and has both immunological and haematological functions. A variety of quite different entities may be associated with sudden death due to splenic involvement. These range from simple traumatic disruption of the parenchyma of a normal spleen with marked intra-abdominal haemorrhage, to conditions such as malaria and infectious mononucleosis where splenomegaly predisposes to rupture. Haematological diseases such as malignancies and haemoglobinopathies may causes sudden death due to haemorrhage or red cell sequestration. Asplenia or polysplenia may be associated with significant congenital heart disease. Hyposplenia, both structural and functional, may also result in rapid demise from sometimes unusual bacterial infections. Vascular abnormalities causing death include entities such as splenic artery aneurysms. Thus, deaths from splenic pathology may be due to localised issues or may be part of more generalised disease. For this reason the autopsy in cases of splenic-associated deaths must be comprehensive and include special testing such as microbiological screening and/or haematologic/genetic evaluation.

The targeted anti-Salmonella bacteriophage attenuated the inflammatory response of laying hens challenged with Salmonella Gallinarum

Fowl typhoid is a severe disease caused by Salmonella Gallinarum with considerable mortality and morbidity in laying hen farms. The current study has focused on controlling the infection in laying hens using anti-Salmonella spp. bacteriophage. The treatments included, PC, without challenge; NC, S. Gallinarum challenged (SGC); B5, 5 mg bacteriophage/kg + SGC; B10, 10 mg bacteriophage/kg + SGC. The Salmonella shedding, inflammatory responses, and gene expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, toll-like receptor (TLR), and heat shock protein (HSP) in the jejunum, liver, and thigh muscle were tested in laying hens. Supplementation of bacteriophage reduced the abundance of S. Gallinarum in the excreta at d 3, 7, and 14. The abundance of S. Gallinarum was lower in the B10 than the B5 at d 7. Supplementation of bacteriophage decreased the abundance of S. Gallinarum in the oviduct, spleen, and cecum at d 14. The laying hens in the NC group showed an increased relative spleen weight compared with the PC and B10 treatments. Among the SGC treatments, the NC treatment showed higher gene expressions of IL-4 compared with the B5, higher gene expressions of interferon (IFNγ), TLR4, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) compared with the B5 and B10, and higher gene expressions of HSP27 compared with the B10 in the jejunum. Dietary supplementation of B10 decreased the mRNA expressions of TLR4 and TNF-α compared with the B5 treatment in the jejunum. The NC treatment showed the highest gene expressions of HSP27, TLR4, and TNF-α in the liver. Dietary supplementation of B10 showed lower mRNA expressions of HSP27 compared with the B5 treatment in the liver. Moreover, the IFNγ and HSP27 were upregulated in the NC treatment compared with the B5 and B10 in the muscle. In conclusion, it can be suggested that bacteriophage is an effective supplement to control S. Gallinarum infection in laying hens and possibly lower horizontal contaminations in laying hen flocks.