Mild to marked splenomegaly was observed in three of four rheas that died acutely in three unrelated commercial ratite facilities in Southeastern Louisiana. Mortalities occurred within a 5-week period in birds ranging from 2 months to 3 years of age. Multifocal hepatic and splenic necrosis with mononuclear cell infiltrates, typical of chlamydiosis in other avian species, was present on histopathologic sections. The diagnoses were confirmed by demonstration of inclusion bodies in splenic impression smears and fluorescent-antibody testing performed on Vero cell cultures.

Five kittens exposed neonatally to older cats exhibiting fever with nasal and ocular discharge became ill and died within 10 days of the onset of illness. One kitten which died at 16 days old was examined post mortem and feline herpesvirus 1 was isolated from the brain, liver, lung and spleen.

A 7 1 9 -A 8 1 3 A721 one year post-discharge and compared between cohorts who receive and did not receive guideline recommended care using a probit regression model with instrumental variables. Results: One-fourth (29%) of the patients with COPD-related hospitalizations/ED visits were identified as recipients of the guideline recommended care. Receiving guideline recommended care was associated with a reduction of 4.4 percentage points in the probability of having subsequent COPD exacerbation requiring hospital admission/ED visits (p-value = 0.837). Analysis focusing on the follow up visit alone shows that having follow up visits were significantly associated (p-value = 0.018) with a reduction in the probability (32.8 percentage points) of having subsequent COPD exacerbation requiring hospital admission/ED visits, while the use of maintenance medication was associated with an increase in the probability (19.5 percentage points) of having subsequent COPD exacerbation requiring hospital admission/ED visits (p-value = 0.337). ConClusions: The use of guideline recommended care, especially in the use of follow up care, was significantly associated with the reduction in the probability of having subsequent COPD exacerbation requiring hospital admission/ED. HS2