Mycobacterioses can produce nonspecific clinical signs in dogs and cats that make diagnosis difficult. Furthermore, the full characterization of mycobacterial agents is not always possible or practical. We characterized mycobacteria detected through cytology in 12 dogs and 7 cats with generalized clinical signs from the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina. In dogs, molecular testing confirmed the presence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (MAH) in 8 cases and M. fortuitum in 1 case. All dogs were Miniature Schnauzers, suggesting that this breed may be more susceptible to M. avium than other dog breeds. The cat isolates were 2 M. bovis, 1 M. fortuitum, and 1 MAH. Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable-number tandem repeat patterns suggested possible links with cattle, swine, and humans studied previously in Argentina. The results show that pets may act as susceptible hosts with the potential risk of transmitting the infection to humans and other animals.

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The Solanaceae is comprised of some 2500 species of cosmopolitan plants, especially native to the American continent. They have great value as food, like the well-known potato, tomato and eggplants, and medicines, like species of Atropa, Withania and Physalis, but many plants of this family are toxic, and sometimes lethal to mammals, in particular to man. Some of them also produce hallucinations and perceptual changes. The toxic species of this family are characterized by the occurrence of a variety of chemical compounds, some of which are responsible for the toxicity and lethality observed after ingestion, while others are suspected to be toxic. In this review, the following toxic compounds belonging to different members of the Solanaceae family are described: Tropane alkaloids (Atropa, Datura, Hyoscyamus, Mandragora); pyrrolidine and pyrrolic alkaloids (Nierembergia, Physalis, Solanum); protoalkaloids (Nierembergia); glycoalkaloids (Lycopersicon, Solanum); nicotine (Nicotiana); cardenolides (Cestrum, Nierembergia); capsaicinoids (Capsicum); kaurene-type tetracyclic diterpenes (Cestrum); steroidal glycosides (Cestrum, Solanum); 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 and vitamin D 3 (Cestrum, Solanum, Nierembergia); and withasteroids, withanolides (Withania), and physalins (Physalis). Other bioactive chemical constituents of members of this family are sugar esters and lectins. Phenylpropanoids are not included in this paper.