Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparisonFox, Herbert
Science
Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparison
Fox, Herbert
Veterinary medicine
Pneumonokoniosis, because of its importance in industrial diseases, has
been subjected during recent years to considerable intensive study in
human medicine, from which activity some interesting and useful
information has been obtained as to its genesis and effect upon the
function of the lung. This condition is of course a purely environmental
one, the degree and particular kind of “dusting” being dependent upon
the duration and nature of exposure of the particular individual. This
Garden is situated beside an active railroad trunk line so that the
opportunity for coal dust inhalation is continuous. The degree of
anthracotic pigmentation of the lungs and related serous membranes is
really negligible and with one questionable exception, we have not seen
fibrosis due to this cause in any animal. The one exception, an amazon
presented and living in the Garden but three months, at necropsy showed
an interstitial chronic bronchitis and pneumonitis stretching out from
the hilum, all of the affected area being deeply pigmented. The picture
was comparable to what might be expected from a second degree
anthracotic fibrosis of Landis and Pancoast. Many specimens come to
autopsy with some grade of pigmentation, but none, except the one above,
with resultant fibrosis. The degree of anthracosis is usually so slight
that it has been considered important enough to include in the diagnosis
but eighteen times and curiously enough seventeen of these were observed
in birds. Were there more cases it might be profitable to plot their
exhibition period but the use of this small number might lead to error;
the average length of exhibition of the birds was about a year. It is
common to observe some black specklings of the air sacs, as if pepper
were dusted on them as has been said before, but even this is rarely
marked. It is most often seen in the Anseres, Psittaci and Struthiones
but a goodly number of cases occur in the long-lived Passeres.
The distribution of the pigment is essentially the same throughout
Mammalia—peribronchial, submucous and in the lymph nodes at the root of
the lung. In the birds it is first seen in the subepithelial spaces of
the septa of the small alveoli where they project into the secondaries,
later accumulating in the connective tissue of the main septa.
Collections under the pleura and at the root of the lung are rare, the
dust usually spreading out along the air passages into the air sacs.
Other forms of pneumonokoniosis are unknown. Although animals must
inspire much dust from dry feed and from floors it must be caught early
and removed by snorting or by the lymphatic drainage. It seems fairly
well accepted that dusts are dangerous to the degree that they contain
inorganic substance and as these animals are not exposed to concentrated
mineral or metallic dusts, no effects are seen.
INFARCTION OF LUNG.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account