Anthrax in cheetahs

By: Dennis Marlowe

April 14, 2010
 Signalment

•Five Cheetah’s

•Wild caught

•2-4 years old

•Intact
 Clinical Signs
(observed prior to death)

Tachypnea
Vomiting
Apathy
All 5 cheetahs died over a four day
period
 Husbandry

Lived on a farm in Namibia Africa

Wild caught for export trade
Kept in 40x90m enclosure with
shelters and shade
Total of 15 cheetahs on farm
Separated in groups of five
 Differentials

Nutritional by means of feeding

on contaminated meat
Contact with infected game or
domestic cattle
 Post-Mortem findings

Blood smear contain many types of

bacteria
None where confirmed as B. anthracis
Bright red nasal discharge was present
and sever sinusitis
 Post-Mortem findings
continued
There was severe lung edema and
blood-tinged hydrothorax
The spleen was not enlarged, but after
sampling there was many small single
rods and cocci which were addressed
as bacteria of decomposition which
were found to be gram positive
 Laboratory Findings

Spleen and lung samples were cultured at

37∘c aerobic and anaerobic on blood agar
plates for 24 hr
The aerobically incubated plates showed,
amongst other colonies typical non-
hemolytic grey-white colonies of B. anthracis
The grey white colonies were tested by the
gamma phage test which yielded positive
for B. anthracis
 Etiology of the disease

Nutritional and Contact with anthrax spores

Cheetahs were fed a wild baboon which
was killed by farmer
One day after given the baboon one
cheetah dies
Second day two cheetahs die
Third day another cheetah dies
Fourth day the last cheetah dies
 Pathogenesis

The infection begins with the inhalation of

the anthrax spore. The ability to reach the
pulmonary alveolus requires a spore size of
less than 5 microns.
The spore is engulfed by alveolar
macrophages, and is transported through
the pulmonary lymphatics to hilar and
mediastinal lymph nodes.
 Pathogenesis Continued

Germination of the organism results in

transformation to vegetative bacteria
with subsequent exotoxin production
which results in hemorrhage and
edema in the lymph nodes and
mediastinum
 Pathogenesis Continued

Pleural effusions and thickening of the

bronchovascular bundles result from
lymphatic stasis and edema related to
extensive lymph node involvement.
Ultimately, the bacteria enter the blood
stream via the thoracic duct, resulting
in severe septicemia and often death.
 Anthrax
Microbiology

•Bacillus anthracis

•gram positive bacillus

•Aerobic conditions

•Found in soil

•Blood agar at 37℃

•50% Develop meningitis

 Anthrax
Microbiology
The organisms are
found in the
pulmonary
lymphatics
surrounding
pulmonary
arterioles and
bronchi
 Conclusion
•As illustrated in the case
the five cheetahs did
indeed die from poor
nutrition from eating
contaminated meat.
•The farmer who shot the
baboon removed and
burned the body after the
first cheetahs death but,
recalled seeing peculiar
carbuncles on the
baboons arm its is
possible that the baboon
had cutaneous form of
anthrax
 References

 Hans G. Jager ,Helen H. Booker, and Otto J. B.

Hubschle, Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 26(3), 1990,
pp. 423-424