Colorado State University, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Fort Collins, 80523, USA.
USDA-APHIS, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, 80521, USA.
Sci Rep. 2018 May 25;8(1):8168. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26558-3.
Anticoagulant rodenticides have been implicated as a potential inciting factor in the development of mange in wild felids, but a causative association between anticoagulant rodenticide exposure and immune suppression has not been established. Specific-pathogen-free domestic cats were exposed to brodifacoum over a 6-week period to determine whether chronic, low-level exposure altered the feline immune response. Cats were vaccinated with irrelevant antigens at different points during the course of the experiment to assess recall and direct immune responses. Measures of immune response included delayed-type hypersensitivity tests and cell proliferation assays. IgE and antigen-specific antibodies were quantified via ELISA assays, and cytokine induction following exposure to vaccine antigens was also analyzed. While cats had marked levels of brodifacoum present in blood during the study, no cats developed coagulopathies or hematologic abnormalities. Brodifacoum-exposed cats had transient, statistically significant decreases in the production of certain cytokines, but all other measures of immune function remained unaffected throughout the study period. This study indicates that cats may be more resistant to clinical effects of brodifacoum exposure than other species and suggests that the gross impacts of environmentally realistic brodifacoum exposure on humoral and cell-mediated immunity against foreign antigen exposures in domestic cats are minimal.
抗凝血灭鼠剂已被认为是野生猫科动物出现疥疮的一个潜在诱发因素，但尚未确定抗凝血灭鼠剂暴露与免疫抑制之间存在因果关系。本研究通过让特定病原体的家猫接触溴敌隆 6 周，以确定慢性、低水平的暴露是否会改变猫的免疫反应。在实验过程中的不同时间点，用无关抗原对猫进行疫苗接种，以评估回忆和直接免疫反应。免疫反应的测量包括迟发型超敏反应试验和细胞增殖试验。通过 ELISA 测定 IgE 和抗原特异性抗体的量，并分析暴露于疫苗抗原后细胞因子的诱导。尽管在研究期间猫的血液中有明显水平的溴敌隆，但没有猫出现凝血异常或血液学异常。接触溴敌隆的猫在细胞因子的产生方面有短暂的、统计学上显著的下降，但在整个研究期间，所有其他免疫功能的测量都没有受到影响。本研究表明，猫可能比其他物种更能抵抗溴敌隆暴露的临床影响，并且表明在环境现实的溴敌隆暴露下，对家养猫对外来抗原暴露的体液和细胞介导免疫的总影响是最小的。
