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. 1980 Dec 1;21(4):533–545. doi: 10.1186/BF03546841

Listeriosis in Sheep

Tick-Borne Fever used as a Model to Study Predisposing Factors

Listeriose hos sau. Sjodogg (tick-borne fever) brukt som modelt til å studera disponerande faktorar

Hallstein Grønstøl 1,✉, John Øverås 1
PMCID: PMC8317772  PMID: 7223579

Abstract

Three groups of 6 months old lambs, each group consisting of 5 animals, were infected experimentally with Ehrlichia phagocytophila (Ep), Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) and Ep/Lm, respectively. All the animals had a period with fever and reduced appetite after infection, and these symptoms were most pronounced in the group with the combined infection (Ep/Lm). One animal in group Lm developed listeric meninigo-encephalitis.

Lm was isolated from blood samples from both groups infected with Lm during the first week after infection, and from faecal samples during the first 2 weeks. Lm was also isolated from organs from several animals in these 2 groups at post-mortem examination.

Group Ep/Lm developed the highest reciprocal geometrical mean titres and the stromgest delayed hypersensitivity reaction against Lm.

After infection, a fall in serum iron and albumin was recorded, and the groups infected with Ep had a substantial fall in neutrophils.

The myeloid : erythroid ratio in the bone marrow tended to decrease in Group Ep/Lm after infection.

An increase in leucocyte counts and total protein content was found in the cerebrospinal fluid in the 2 groups infected with Lm, The experiment indicates that the blood changes induced by tick-borne fever viz, neutropenia and probably also impaired function of the neutrophils, may predispose for listeric septicaemia, but probably not for listeric meningo-encephalitis.

Keywords: sheep, Listeria monocytogenes, Ehrlichia phagocytophila, immunity, blood components, bone marrow, cerebrospinal fluid

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Footnotes

This work was supported by grants from the Norwegian Agricultural Research Council.

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