Respiratory diseases are a very common source of morbidity and mortality among children. Health care providers often face a dilemma when encountering a febrile infant or child with respiratory tract infection. The reason expressed by many clinicians is the trouble to confirm whether the fever is caused by a virus or a bacterium. The aim of this review is to update the current evidence on the vi...

BACKGROUND Vitamin A is essential for normal growth, development, reproduction, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, immune function and vision. Hypovitaminosis A can lead to a series of pathological damage in animals. This report describes the case of hypovitaminosis A associated with secondary complications in calves. CASE PRESENTATION From February to March in 2011, 2-and 3-month old ...

Dear Editor, The contributory role of bacterial infection to severe infl uenza illness during a pandemic is not entirely clear. The post-mortem samples of those who died between 1918 and 1919, the pre-antibiotic era, exhibited severe changes indicative of bacterial pneumonia; these are less well substantiated in the subsequent 2 pandemics in the 1950s and 1960s. Although primary viral pneumonia...

Seasonal influenza virus infections may lead to debilitating disease, and account for significant fatalities annually worldwide. Most of these deaths are attributed to the complications of secondary bacterial pneumonia. Evidence is accumulating to support the notion that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) harbor several antibacterial proteins, and trap and kill bacteria. We have previously d...

A three-year-old spayed domestic short-haired cat presented for evaluation of weight loss, cardiomegaly and pleural effusion. Echocardiographic examination demonstrated a thickened pericardium with mild pericardial effusion and a large volume of pleural effusion characterized by exudate. Although the cat was treated with antibiotics, the clinical symptoms did not improve. The cat developed dysp...

The severity of bovine respiratory infections has been linked to a variety of factors, including environmental and nutritional changes, transportation, and social reorganization of weaned calves. Fatal respiratory infections, however, usually occur when a primary viral infection compromises host defences and enhances the severity of a secondary bacterial infection. This viral-bacterial synergy ...

Young adult rabbits (2 to 3 kg.) were subjected to a single total body exposure of x-radiation ranging from 50 to 1200 r and tested frequently for the presence of Cx-reactive protein in their blood. It usually appeared in two phases separated by an interval of several days. The primary phase occurred 24 to 48 hours after irradiation in almost all (92 of 97) rabbits exposed to 500 r or more and ...

Background Secondary bacterial infections following viral infections of the airways are well documented and are associated with increased severity of respiratory disease compared to virus or bacterial infections alone. Human rhinovirus (HRV) infections are the most common causes of exacerbations in individuals with chronic airways diseases such as asthma and COPD. Moreover, bacterial colonizati...