ABORTION, stillbirths and neonatal deaths are an important source of economic loss for an equine industry. Many of the infectious disease agents that have been implicated are important from the viewpoint of international trade (Butler and others 2011). Having knowledge of the likely presence of specific infectious agents in an area is very useful for clinicians when attempting to identify the cause of an abortion and when assessing the predictive value of a diagnostic test. As reported in previous studies (Hong and others 1993, Butler and others 2011, Laugier and others 2011), the causes of abortion can change over time, as a reflection of improved diagnostic capability or because of background differences in at-risk equine populations. Moreover, regional differences can also influence the cause and frequency of pregnancy loss (Giles and others 1993, Hong and others 1993, Tengelsen and others 1997, Smith and others 2003, Butler and others 2011, Laugier and others 2011). Monitoring and surveillance of the causes of fetal loss over time is very important. The aim of this study was to investigate the principal causes of abortion, stillbirth and neonatal mortality in horses in central Italy, with particular emphasis on those of infectious aetiology. Abortion was defined as fetal loss before 300 days' gestation, stillbirth as delivery of a dead foal after 300 days of gestation and neonatal mortality as foals that die within seven days of birth. A total of 67 abortions, 22 stillbirths and 14 cases of neonatal mortality were examined in this study. These represented voluntary submissions by veterinarians to the Diagnostic Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Perugia, between November 2004 and July 2011. Only three cases were investigated in 2004. Cases came from over 31 farms and included thoroughbreds, standardbreds, warmbloods, Maremmano horses, Italian TPR agricultural horses, Arabians and Shetland ponies. Most cases were received between

Herpesviral infections frequently occur in horses. The objective of this study was to investigate the possible association of equine herpesviruses (EHV-1, EHV-2, EHV-3, EHV-4, EHV-5) with other causes of abortion, neonatal mortality or placental disorder. Sixty-seven abortions, 22 stillbirths, 14 cases of neonatal foal mortality and 3 cases of placental disease were investigated for infectious and non-infectious causes. Type-specific nested PCR assays and virus isolation were performed to detect EHV infections. A cause of fetal loss or placental disease was reached in 68 out 116 (58.7%) cases. Twenty-seven cases were positive for EHV, and 22/27 (81.5%) were positive for EHV-1 (16 neuropathogenic and 6 non-neuropathogenic strains), 4 (14.8%) for EHV-2 and 3 (11.1%) for EHV-5. The association between EHV infections and other etiological agents was statistically significant (two sided P = 0.002). The odds ratio of EHV DNA associated with other diagnoses, especially with bacterial infection and premature placental separation, was 10.88 (95% confidence interval: 2.15-55.16). EHV-1 was the main viral cause of pregnancy loss in this study, also associated with other etiological agents, including EHV-2 and EHV-5. The latter viruses in particular need to be more fully investigated to elucidate what role either or both may play as co-infecting agents with other established infectious causes of reproductive disease.

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Biofilm-forming ability is increasingly being recognized as an important virulence factor in several Staphylococcus species. This study evaluated the biofilm-forming ability of sixty canine derived clinical isolates of S. pseudintermedius, using three phenotypic methods, microtiter plate test (MtP), Congo red agar method (CRA) and tube adherence test, and the presence and impact of biofilm-associated genes (icaA and icaD). The results showed that icaA and icaD genes were detected concomitantly in 55 (91.7%) of 60 isolates. A majority (88.3%) of the strains screened had matching results by the tube adherence test, MtP and PCR analysis. Better agreement (95%) was found between the PCR-based analysis and the CRA. Results of the icaA and icaD gene PCRs showed good agreement with CRA results, with a kappa of 0.7. Comparing the phenotypic methods, the statistical analysis showed that the agreement among the phenotypical tests using categorical data was generally good. Considering two classes (biofilm producer and biofilm non-producer), the percentage of matching results between the CRA method and the tube adherence test and between the CRA method and the MtP was 93.3%. A concordance of 100% was revealed between the MtP and the tube adherence test. The results indicate a high prevalence of the ica genes within S. pseudintermedius isolates, and their presence is associated with in vitro formation of a biofilm. A combination of phenotypic and genotypic tests is recommended for investigating biofilm formation in S. pseudintermedius.

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