Abstract
A farmer's wife who had helped with lambing aborted spontaneously in March after a short febrile illness in the 28th week of her pregnancy. She developed disseminated intravascular coagulation post partum with acute renal failure and pulmonary oedema. Recovery was complete after two weeks of hospital care. A strain of Chlamydia psittaci, probably of ovine origin, was isolated from the placenta and fetus. The patient's serum showed rising titres of antibody against chlamydia group antigen; the placental and fetal isolates; and a known ovine abortion, but not a known avian, strain of C psittaci. IgG against both ovine abortion and enteric strains of C psittaci was detected, but IgM against only an abortion strain was detected. Histological examination showed pronounced intervillus placentitis with chlamydial inclusions in the trophoblast but no evidence of fetal infection or amnionitis. Laboratory evidence of chlamydial infection was found in an aborting ewe on the farm in January and in remaining sheep and lambs in July. Doctors should recognise the possible risk to pregnant women in rural areas where chlamydial infections in farm animals are widespread.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Beer R. J., Bradford W. P., Hart R. J. Pregnancy complicated by psittacosis acquired from sheep. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1982 Apr 17;284(6323):1156–1157. doi: 10.1136/bmj.284.6323.1156. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Blewett D. A., Gisemba F., Miller J. K., Johnson F. W., Clarkson M. J. Ovine enzootic abortion: the acquisition of infection and consequent abortion within a single lambing season. Vet Rec. 1982 Nov 27;111(22):499–501. doi: 10.1136/vr.111.22.499. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Johnson F. W. Chlamydiosis. Br Vet J. 1983 Mar-Apr;139(2):93–101. doi: 10.1016/s0007-1935(17)30531-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Johnson F. W. Isolation of Chlamydia psittaci from nasal and conjunctival exudate of a domestic cat. Vet Rec. 1984 Apr 7;114(14):342–344. doi: 10.1136/vr.114.14.342. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- McClenaghan M., Herring A. J., Aitken I. D. Comparison of Chlamydia psittaci isolates by DNA restriction endonuclease analysis. Infect Immun. 1984 Aug;45(2):384–389. doi: 10.1128/iai.45.2.384-389.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Roberts W., Grist N. R., Giroud P. Human abortion associated with infection by ovine abortion agent. Br Med J. 1967 Oct 7;4(5570):37–37. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5570.37. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]