The Pathology of Experimental Corynebacterium equi Infection in Foals following Intragastric Challenge

Abstract

The intragastric inoculation of a suspension of Corynebacterium equi on five consecutive days induced severe ulcerative colitis, typhilitis, and lymphadenitis of colonic and cecal nodes in two ponies necropsied three weeks after infection. No gross lesions were observed in two ponies necropsied ten days after infection. A single inoculum of equivalent size failed to induce gross lesions in four ponies killed at ten or 20 days after infection. Microscopic lesions consistent with early C. equi infection of Peyer's patches were seen in two of the ponies killed ten days after infection. Only one small pulmonary abscess occurred in one foal, suggesting that intestinal lesions are not likely the usual precursor of pulmonary disease in naturally infected foals. The gross and microscopic lesions in the experimentally infected ponies were typical of the intestinal form of naturally occurring C. equi associated disease in foals.