Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) is a flavivirus responsible for an important zoonotic, vector-borne disease included in the OIE list. JEV is endemic in a large area of Asia. In Italy, JEV has been found in dead birds collected in 1997-2000 and in a pool of Culex pipiens mosquitoes collected in 2010. Viral ecology in the inter-epidemic periods is not known. The aim of this study was to investigate JEV in FFPE archival samples of healthy birds collected in 1997-2000 in Tuscany (Italy) in the same area and a few months after collection of birds resulted infected by JEV. Different samples from 37 young birds and 83 adults were available. Immunohistochemistry detected JEV antigen only in bone marrow samples from 12 young healthy birds. Positive cells were morphologically referable to monocyte-macrophages lineage and were positive for anti-CD11b in serial sections. Real-time PCR detected JEV RNA in four of these samples. These results suggest that healthy birds can harbour JEV in bone marrow cells, while no other organs resulted infected. The role of healthy birds in JEV ecology should be better investigated. Surveillance programmes should include sampling of the most appropriate target organs.

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Canine fiber responsive diarrhea is a form of chronic colitis that improves clinically after adding fiber to the diet. In the present study, we investigated the effect of a combination of a high-fiber, highly digestible, hypoallergenic diet with a probiotic mixture in 30 dogs with chronic colitis that were unresponsive to various dietary and/or pharmacological interventions. Fecal scores, canine chronic enteropathy clinical activity index (CCECAI) scores, the dysbiosis index (DI), and histologic images of colonic biopsies were evaluated. At baseline (day 0; T0) and after 30 days of treatment (T1), all variables evaluated in our patients (i.e., fecal and CCECAI scores and histopathology) improved significantly at T1, with the exception of DI. However, there was a numerical shift from a state of dysbiosis to one of normobiosis. The combination of the diet and the probiotic used in the present study induced the resolution of clinical signs in a mean of 8.5 days (maximum 15 days) and did not necessitate any other treatments or the further addition of alimentary fiber.

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We compared the immunohistochemical expression of putrescine (PUT), spermine (SPM), ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), and diamine oxidase (DAO) in bioptic samples of canine colonic mucosa with chronic inflammation (i.e., granulomatous colitis and lymphoplasmacytic colitis) or neoplasia. Single and total polyamines levels were significantly higher in neoplastic tissue than in normal samples. Samples with different degrees of inflammation showed a general decrease expression of ODC if compared to controls; SPM was practically not expressed in control samples and very low in samples with chronic-granulomatous inflammation. In carcinomatous samples, the ODC activity was higher with respect to controls and samples with inflammation. This is the first description of polyamines expression in dog colonic mucosa in normal and in different pathological conditions, suggesting that the balance between polyamine degradation and biosynthesis is evidently disengaged during neoplasia.