Fun Facts Q8: which organisms can interfere with research?

One of the things we do as veterinarians is try to maintain our rodent colonies free of pathogens and opportunists that can affect research.  Most of us have a long list of viruses, parasites and bacteria (amongst others) that we routinely test for and exclude - but what about all the others?  Do we automatically assume that it is not an infectious cause if all our tests are coming back negative? I guess you already know the answer from the way I asked the question, but which organisms should be top of our suspect list if we get asked about unexpected problems in a lab's research?  Here are some actual scenarios for you to ponder...

1.  I am having problems getting a phenotype with my experimental autoimmune encephalitis model - the mice are immunized against myelin and should mount an adaptive immune response against their own nervous system resulting in progressive or intermittent paralysis.    However over the last few months we are not getting a response.  It's the same animals, the same personnel, the same reagents - what's going on?

2. I have a mouse model investigating immune responses in our genetically engineered mouse model that has cloned T cells (limited action only to defined epitopes)  - however the controls as well as the test animals are both reacting the same.  Is it norovirus?

3. Help!  I'm losing my mouse line ... it's a transgenic model I created and so far as I  know there are no immune deficiencies.  However I'm getting infertility, small litter sizes and unexpected deaths in young adult mice. Help!

ps. Don't forget to add your email address on the right  if you want to be automatically notified when there are new posts.   So far as I know, emails entered will only be used for this one purpose -
Best
Julie

Fun Facts Q7: Can you identify these parasites?

From a bat (Eptesicus fuscus)

From a mouse

From a mouse

From a mouse

from a rabbit (courtesy of veterian key)

from a mouse

from a mouse

from a mouse

from a wild rat (courtesy of study blue)

from a mouse cage

from a mouse

from a mouse

Fun Fact Q6: Do NHP have a lot of Heinz bodies?

I had a call from a colleague this week saying...
 “ I’ve got this blood sample from a NHP (turns out it was a Goeldi’s monkey) and I don’t know what to make of it.  It seems to have a lot of Heinz bodies – is this normal?"

So this weeks questions are about blood samples with interesting features.

·      What is a Heinz body?

·      Are they likely to be a common finding in Goeldi’s monkeys?

·      Bonus: what is the genus and species of a Goeldi’s monkey? 

·      What pathological process do Heinz bodies normally indicate?

·      Give an example of an inherited disorder that results in this pathology

·      Apart from inherited disorders, what other conditions can result in this pathology in animals?

·      What stain is often used to highlight Heinz bodies?

·      Marmosets also often have Howell Jolly bodies in their blood. What is a Howell Jolly body?

·      The presence of a large proportion of Howell Jolly bodies usually indicates what pathology?