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OBJECTIVE Transmissable venereal tumour (TVT) is a tumour transplanted by physical contact between dogs. Lesions typically affect the genitalia. TVT is not considered enzootic in the United Kingdom (UK), with cases seen in imported dogs. We sought to determine the patient characteristics, temporal and spatial distribution and country of origin of affected dogs in the UK. METHODS Electronic pathology records (EPRs) from four UK veterinary diagnostic laboratories collected between 2010 and 2019 were searched for the terms 'venereal' or 'TVT'. Reports were reviewed for statements confirming a TVT and descriptive statistics collated. RESULTS Of 182 EPRs matching the search terms, a diagnosis of TVT was confirmed in 71. Country of origin was noted in 36 cases (50.7%) with Romania being the most common (n = 29). Cases were reported in each UK constituent country, with the majority being in England (64, 90.1%). The incidence of TVT diagnosis increased over the last decade (z = 2.78, p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS/DISCUSSION The incidence of TVT diagnosed in the UK is increasing. The majority of cases were known to have been imported. Autochthonous transmission cannot be excluded due to study design. Vets are encouraged to carefully examine the genitalia of dogs imported to the UK from countries with enzootic TVT.

Report Summary: • Presentation for investigation and/or treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) disease comprised 3.0 per cent, 2.0 per cent and 1.9 per cent of total dog, cat and rabbit consultations respectively between 1 April 2017 and 31 October 2018 • Diarrhoea and vomiting without blood were the most frequently reported GI disease clinical signs (43.0 and 36.6 per cent in dogs, and 35.9 and 37.7 per cent in cats respectively) • The proportion of GI disease consultations which prescribed antibiotics authorised for systemic administration (including oral and injectable formulations) decreased between April 2014 and October 2018 • The proportion of GI disease consultations which dispensed nutraceutical products advertised as being effective at managing primary GI disease (including prebiotics, probiotics etc.) increased between April 2014 and October 2018 • Between January 2011 and August 2018, 13.5 per cent of 20,194 feline faecal samples submitted to UK-based diagnostic laboratories tested positive for presence of Tritrichomonas foetus • The proportion of feline sample submissions testing positive for T.foetus decreased between 2011 and 2018

Presentation for gastrointestinal (GI) disease comprised 2.2 per cent of cat, 3.2 per cent of dog and 2.2 per cent of rabbit consultations between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017Diarrhoea and vomiting without blood were the most frequently reported GI disease clinical signs (34.4 and 38.9 per cent in cats and 42.8 and 37.3 per cent in dogs, respectively)The mean percentage of samples testing positive forSalmonellain dogs was double that in cats (0.82 per cent and 0.41 per cent, respectively) from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2016In dogs, autumn was associated with a greater proportion ofSalmonella-positive sample submissions; no clear suggestion of seasonal variation in cats was observedIn both cats and dogs, isolates belonging toSalmonella entericagroup B serotypes were the most common (68.9 per cent in cats and 55.0 per cent in dogs).

Vomiting is a frequent reason why dogs are brought to the veterinary practice, and it is often mild and self-limiting.1 However, recently the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET) has become aware of reports from veterinary surgeons of acute-onset prolific vomiting in dogs in various parts of the UK. We are working to investigate this potential outbreak. Affected dogs are described as vomiting prolifically (five or more episodes in a 12-hour …

This is the first UK small animal disease surveillance report from SAVSNET. Future reports will expand to other syndromes and diseases. As data are collected for longer, the estimates of changes in disease burden will become more refined, allowing more targeted local and perhaps national interventions. Anonymised data can be accessed for research purposes by contacting the authors. SAVSNET welcomes feedback on this report.

We are writing to raise awareness of xylitol toxicosis in dogs. Xylitol exists naturally in low concentrations in fruit and vegetables and is a normal intermediary in glucose metabolism. For people, it is used as a sweetener in many products, particularly sugar-free chewing gums and some chewable medications, where it will be listed as an excipient rather than active ingredient. It is also available as granules for home baking. It contains 40 per cent fewer calories than sugar and has the food …

Recently, in the USA, virulent mutants of feline calicivirus (FCV) have been identified as the cause of a severe and acute virulent systemic disease, characterised by jaundice, oedema and high mortality in groups of cats. This severe manifestation of FCV disease has so far only been reported in the USA. However, in 2003, an outbreak of disease affected a household of four adult cats and an adult cat from a neighbouring household in the UK. Three of the adult cats in the household and the neighbouring cat developed clinical signs including pyrexia (39.5 to 40.5 degrees C), lameness, voice loss, inappetence and jaundice. One cat was euthanased in extremis, two died and one recovered. A postmortem examination of one of the cats revealed focal cellulitis around the right hock and right elbow joints. The principal finding of histopathological examinations of selected organs from two of the cats was disseminated hepatocellular necrosis with mild inflammatory infiltration. Immunohistology identified FCV antigen in parenchymal and Kupffer cells in the liver of both animals and in alveolar macrophages of one of them. In addition, calicivirus-like particles were observed by electron microscopy within the hepatocytes of one cat. FCV was isolated from two of the dead cats and from the two surviving cats. Sequence analysis showed that they were all infected with the same strain of virus, but that it was different from strains of FCV associated with the virulent systemic disease in cats in the USA. The outbreak was successfully controlled by quarantine in the owner's house.

INFECTIOUS respiratory disease in cats is a significant clinical problem. It is most commonly seen where cats are grouped together and especially in young kittens. Two viruses - feline herpesvirus (FHV) and feline calicivirus (FCV) - have been known for many years to be involved in the aetiology of feline respiratory disease while, more recently, other pathogens, such as Bordetella bronchiseptica , have also been found to be important. The role of other bacteria and mycoplasmas has not been fully established as yet. Chlamydophila felis is more frequently associated with predominantly conjunctival disease and, although upper respiratory tract signs may also occur, these are generally mild. This article describes some of the most important features of the three main respiratory pathogens, FHV, FCV and B bronchiseptica .

The DRB genes of the domestic cat are highly polymorphic. Studies based on clonal sequence analysis have suggested the existence of two distinct loci within individual animals and good evidence for 24 distinct FLA-DRB alleles. This variability, the complexity of clonal sequence analysis and its susceptibility to PCR-induced artefacts has represented a bottleneck to further progress. In this study we have applied reference strand-mediated conformational analysis (RSCA) to FLA-DRB. This protocol has been shown to be highly reproducible. Using five reference strands including two derived from non-domestic felines, we could distinguish 23 FLA-DRB alleles. We used RSCA to explore genetic polymorphism of FLA-DRB in 71 cats including 31 for which clonal sequence analysis was also available. On average, RSCA identified 0.9 more alleles within cats than clonal sequence analysis. Reference strand-mediated conformational analysis was also able to identify animals containing new alleles that could be targeted for sequence analysis. Analysis of allele patterns showed clear evidence for different allele distributions between breeds of cats, and suggested the Burmese breed may have highly restricted FLA-DRB polymorphism. Results from two families provided clear evidence for variation in the number of DRB genes on different haplotypes, with some haplotypes carrying two genes and some containing three. This study highlights the utility of RSCA for the resolution of complex amplicons containing up to six distinct alleles. A simple, rapid method for characterizing FLA-DRB makes possible studies on vaccine response and susceptibility/resistance to viral infections, which are a significant clinical problem in cats.

Chocolate has long been recognised as, and remains, a common cause of intoxication in dogs accounting for 25 per cent of acute presentations for intoxication.1 2 Case numbers in Europe and the UK have been reviewed, mostly based on reports to poisons centres.3–6 Chocolate toxicity results from the methylxanthine theobromine present in cocoa bean products, causing gastrointestinal (eg, vomiting), cardiovascular (eg, tachycardia) and central nervous (eg, agitation and seizure) signs.7 Chocolate intoxication is mostly seen in dogs6 8 and theobromine dose calculations based on the source of chocolate are well documented7 9 and available online. 10 11 The current study reviews cases of chocolate exposure presented to a large sentinel network of UK veterinary practices between 2012 and 2017. Electronic health records were collected from 229 UK veterinary practices (500 premises) by the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET).12 Records included the consultation time, species, breed, sex and clinical free text (narrative) in which inadvertent personal identifying data contained in narratives had been redacted using deidentification software (Newman). Narratives were screened using a regular expression13 to identify the presence of the word ‘chocolate’, including a range of misspellings and contractions (eg, ‘choc’, ‘choclat’). Cases were tagged for study inclusion if on reading they matched a definition of potential chocolate exposure whereby ingestion triggered …

Two visits, six weeks apart, were made to a cat rescue shelter and single oropharyngeal swabs were taken from all the compliant cats. Feline calicivirus was isolated from 14 of 45 swabs (31 per cent) taken on the first visit and 12 of 46 swabs (26 per cent) taken on the second visit. Nucleotide sequences were obtained for nine isolates from the first visit, six isolates from the second visit, and for the vaccine virus used in the cattery. Distance analysis showed that the majority of the isolates could be assigned to one of two groups. All the isolates obtained from cats sharing the same pen or isolates obtained from the same cat on successive visits, were less than 5 per cent distant, whereas most of the isolates from cats in different pens were more than 20 per cent distant. Phylogenetic analysis showed that at least seven distinct field isolates were present in the cattery. The only good evidence for virus transmission within the cattery was a case in which two viruses isolated from cats in different pens had sequences that were less than 5 per cent distant.

SURVEILLANCE involves monitoring disease, infection or other health indices in a defined population, such that action can be taken when necessary. In the UK, this is currently performed for livestock with government funding through subsidised diagnostics at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency ([VLA

Feline calicivirus (FCV) can be typed by exploiting antigenic differences between isolates or, more recently, by the sequence analysis of a hypervariable region of the virus's capsid gene. These two methods were used to characterise FCV isolates from 20 vaccine failures which occurred after the use of a commercial, live-attenuated vaccine. Using virus neutralisation, the isolates showed a spectrum of relatedness to the vaccine; depending on the criterion adopted for identity, 10 to 40 per cent of them appeared to be similar to the vaccine virus. Using sequence analysis, the isolates fell into one of two categories; 20 per cent had a similar sequence to the vaccine (0-67 to 2-67 per cent distant), and the remainder had a dissimilar sequence (21-3 to 36-0 per cent distant). Sequence analysis identified one cat that appeared to be infected with two distinct FCVs. The serological and sequence-based typing methods gave the same result in 80 to 95 per cent of individual cases, depending on the criterion adopted for serological identity. It is suggested that molecular typing is a more definitive method for characterising the relatedness of FCV isolates.

WE would like to thank Lance Lanyon for drawing attention to the very important issue of funding veterinary data collection projects in his Viewpoint article, ‘Collecting the evidence for EBVM: who pays?’ ( VR , January 30, 2016, vol 178, pp 120-121). The article was thought provoking and BSAVA agrees that such initiatives require appropriate funding in order to advance scientific knowledge. As such, we were disappointed that the article did not acknowledge the major role of BSAVA in supporting the SAVSNET project, both financially and …

We would like to bring to the attention of colleagues a potentially new syndrome that has affected cats in several shelters and catteries over the past 17 months, in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The syndrome, which, in the absence of any clear aetiology, we have termed feline acute haemorrhagic vomiting syndrome, can affect cats of all ages, regardless of their vaccination status.

IN their short communication summarised on p 589 of this issue, Meyer and others (2011) give us a timely reminder of the changing pathologies that may be associated with feline calicivirus (FCV) infection. This highly variable pathogen is typically associated with oral ulceration and signs of upper respiratory tract disease (Gaskell and others 2006). However, some strains may be non-virulent, while others have been associated with lameness. In their article, Meyer and others (2011) point to a more recently described and sinister presentation for this virus, namely virulent systemic disease (FCV-associated VSD). This disease was first described by researchers from the University of California (Pedersen and others 2000). In this landmark paper for this virus, the authors carefully described an outbreak of disease in 1998 affecting six cats, variably associated with pyrexia, oedema, skin ulceration and jaundice, with a fatality rate (death and euthanasia) of approximately 33 per cent. The outbreak, which was initially termed haemorrhagic-like fever owing to certain similarities with rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus, seemed to start with the hospitalisation of a cat from a rescue shelter for an upper respiratory tract infection. Subsequently, the infection was probably transmitted through direct and indirect contact in the veterinary practice. Feline calicivirus was isolated from nasal swabs and, more unusually, blood from the worst affected cats. Despite the fact that FCV exists at a high prevalence in many populations of healthy cats, and as such can be an innocent bystander in cats …

WE have read with interest the report of the independent inquiry into dog breeding chaired by Professor Bateson. We note particularly one of the report’s recommendations that ‘High priority should be given to the creation of a computer-based system for the collection of anonymised diagnoses from

SIR, — We have recently been awarded a Golden Jubilee grant by the rcvs Trust to sequence 50 veterinary pathogen genomes using the latest high throughput sequencing technologies over the next three years. We are currently seeking collaborations from scientists who have pathogenic organisms of

In this study, data from veterinary clinical records were collected via the small animal veterinary surveillance network (SAVSNET). Over a three-month period, data were obtained from 22,859 consultations at 16 small animal practices in England and Wales: 69 per cent from dogs, 24 per cent from cats, 3 per cent from rabbits and 4 per cent from miscellaneous species. The proportion of consults where prescribing of antibacterials was identified was 35.1 per cent for dogs, 48.5 per cent for cats and 36.6 per cent for rabbits. Within this population, 76 per cent of antibacterials prescribed were β-lactams, including the most common group of clavulanic acid-potentiated amoxicillin making up 36 per cent of the antibacterials prescribed. Other classes included lincosamides (9 per cent), fluoroquinolones and quinolones (6 per cent) and nitroimidazoles (4 per cent). Vancomycin and teicoplanin (glycopeptide class), and imipenem and meropenem (β-lactam class) prescribing was not identified. Prescribing behaviour varied between practices. For dogs and cats, the proportion of consults associated with the prescription of antibacterials ranged from 0.26 to 0.55 and 0.41 to 0.73, respectively.

CANINE enteric coronavirus (CECoV) is a pathogen commonly found in dogs, which has been shown to exist in two closely related forms; infection may occur from one or both strains. As there is limited data on the prevalence of CECoV, and commercial diagnostic tests suitable for distinction between the