ijvp

Indian Journal of Veterinary Pathology

0250-47580973-970X

Indian Association of Veterinary Pathologists

ijvp-38-4-editorial

EDITORIAL

Pawaiya

Rajveer Singh

Chief Editor of IJVP & Principal Scientist^1,*

¹Division of Animal Health, Central Institute for Research on Goats Makhdoom, P.O. Farah, Mathura, (U.P.) India

*E-mail: rvspawaiya@gmail.com

1122014

37111

2014

IndianJournals.com

I feel immense pleasure in presenting the last quarterly issue of IJVP 2014 before you. The issue has been published well before time. And this accomplishment is attributed to the constant support, proactive interest and hard work of all the editorial board members and our reviewers, in addition to the huge efforts made by the authors in conducting superb research work and preparing the manuscripts for publication in this journal.

The scientific technologies are continuously changing, and newer advancements are being made to make our results more accurate, sensitive, and specific for diagnosing a disease. Veterinary researchers are working hard to study the role played by various cellular components in the progression of the disease, etiopathogenesis of various diseases of animals, and to evolve newer diagnostic tools in an effort to detect the ailments in early stage of progression.

Mammary cancer in canines, just like the breast cancer in humans, is one of the leading causes of mortality in dogs. Steroid hormones have been found to play a major role in the genesis and progression of mammary tumors. For last many years, the expression of a number of hormonal and other markers in canine mammary epithelial cells has been studied in detail. Particularly in canines, the presence of estrogen receptors (ER) in variable proportions of benign and malignant tumors of the mammary gland have been demonstrated by both biochemical and immunohistochemical (IHC) methods. Study of these hormonal markers has become mandatory for the correct diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of disease course. The study by Leena Port Louis et al. in this issue establishes the positive correlation of expression of ER beta and Ki67 antigen (a cell proliferation marker) with the malignancy of the canine mammary tumours.

Tumour progression is dependent on the equilibrium between cell proliferation and apoptosis, and evasion of apoptosis is one of the important events of tumourigenesis. The rate of tumour growth depends in part on an excess of proliferation over apoptosis and it is possible that high apoptosis could be strongly associated with proliferation. The study by M Regon et al. in this issue establishes this hypothesis by evaluating apoptosis in N-methyl nitrosourea (NMU) induced rat mammary tumours, employing terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay in correlation with caspase-3 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunohistochemistry. A study by T. Anand Kumar and C. Balachandran appearing in this issue finds apoptosis as the main mechanism responsible for lymphocytolysis in spleen and thymus due to toxic effects of mycotoxins (citrinin and aflatoxin) in chicken, resulting in the reduced immune response.

Rabies, the most feared viral zoonotic disease, causes fatal encephalomyelitis with the highest case fatality rate compared to any other infectious disease. It is endemic in India and accounts for about 36% of global rabies burden. Accurate laboratory diagnosis of rabies is essential for mitigating rabies-related deaths, especially in tropical countries like India where receiving fresh samples in laboratory is practically unfeasible, with added increased risk of infection while working with fresh brain samples. Dealing with formalin-fixed brain samples offset such risks and could be practical approach for rabies diagnosis. A study by Pranoti Sharma et al. in this issue compares the effectiveness of immunohistochemistry (IHC) with the gold standard fluorescent antibody test (FAT) and finds 100% sensitivity and accuracy of IHC in rabies diagnosis, at par with FAT. These results provide IHC as a promising alternative approach for diagnosis of rabies where FAT is not feasible and it could be a preferred method of choice over histopathology technique.

Another very old zoonotic disease, tuberculosis, caused by members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), requires constant screening of animals, particularly cattle which are main source of infection to other animals and humans through milk. Direct examination of acid fast bacilli by microscopy is rapid but has a low sensitivity, requiring about 104 bacteria per millilitre of tissue specimen. Culture is essential for a definite diagnosis; however, it takes weeks for identification and its sensitivity is also relatively low. In an interesting study by Dhanshri Owhal et al. published in this issue, the fluorescent auramine-rhodamine technique has been found to be a better method for the demonstration of tubercle bacilli in histological material in terms of false-negative results and convenience of test, provided the availability of a fluorescence microscope.

I hope, the research articles published in this issue will be of interest and useful to veterinary pathologists, teachers, researchers and students, and help in enhancing their knowledge and areas of research.

With best wishes,

Rajveer Singh Pawaiya

Chief Editor of IJVP & Principal Scientist

Division of Animal Health Central Institute for Research on Goats Makhdoom, P.O. Farah, Mathura, (U.P.) India E-mail: rvspawaiya@gmail.com