LISA HULME-MOIR We don’t often receive cytology samples from farm animals but just like in dogs and cats, cytology has the potential to yield a quick diagnosis that assists with decision making, optimising animal welfare and promoting judicious use of antibiotics. Clinical history: A fine needle aspirate was submitted from a lesion on the nose […]
SANDY WELTAN There are many advantages to performing cytology. It is generally quick and simple to perform with rapid results, inexpensive and minimally invasive. Inconclusive results from non-diagnostic slides are a source of frustration for the practitioner and the pathologist. A good slide contains an adequate number of intact, appropriately stained cells in a monolayer […]
New Zealand has never had a detected case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). The risk of a HPAI virus such as H5N1 arriving here is low as New Zealand is isolated from other landmasses, is not on the flyways for any migratory waterfowl and we have strong border biosecurity. Biosecurity New Zealand has monitoring […]
RACHEL WHITEHEAD We are seeing a continual emergence of drench resistance in cattle. The importance of monitoring the efficiency of drenches in cattle, particularly dairy, is key to halt the production limiting effect of resistant parasite burden. Faecal egg counting (FEC) alone does have its limits when used for cattle. The host immune response can […]
ALICE FRASER A warm, wet summer certainly brings an abundance of feed for livestock grazing or to harvest, but it also brings more disease issues to consider. For sheep farmers, such conditions can cause increased cases of fly strike, early bouts of Haemonchus and the threat of an upcoming high sporidesmin challenge, to name a […]
REBECCA ALLAN A recent case through the laboratory highlighted the challenges when diagnosing hypoadrenocorticism and in differentiating the typical from atypical form of the disease. Hypoadrenocorticism or Addison’s disease is an uncommon endocrinopathy that occurs when there is destruction or atrophy of layers of the adrenal cortex. The most common form is when both the […]
ROB FAIRLEY We have received several lamb and calf cases recently with post mortem samples from animals with diarrhoea. Here are some recommendations to ensure you get the most out of your cases, especially when sacrificing an animal for histological sampling of the gut. 1. Immerse your samples of gut into formalin as soon as possible […]
We just love getting customer feedback, especially suggestions for improvement that will benefit many of our clients. The most recent improvement is to molecular test reporting. You will now find positive, pool positive, detected, weak detect, high positive etc. results for molecular and BVD milk tests are highlighted in red font on reports. This will […]
CATHY HARVEY & REBECCA ALLAN Clinical history: Buddy, a 4-year-old neutered male Border Collie presented with lethargy and an in-house PCV of 12%. There was no free blood in the abdomen and the spleen was normal. He had progressive pancytopenia without regeneration, a single dose of dexamethasone and two blood transfusions, before bone marrow samples […]
KATHRYN JENKINS A recent interesting case highlighted the issue of a lesion which can mimic the clinical appearance of a benign lipoma. Clinical history: A 10-year-old dog presented with a 7 cm diameter mass located on the upper forelimb, which had been slowly growing over the last 4-6 months. The mass palpated like a lipoma, […]