Vet World   Vol.14   April-2021  Article-28

First evidence of Klebsiella pneumoniae infection in Aceh cattle: Pathomorphology and antigenic distribution in the lungs

Background and Aim: Klebsiella pneumoniae is an emerging zoonotic and foodborne pathogen worldwide. Hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (hvKp) was reported as the causative agent of bovine mastitis. This is the first study in Indonesia that has been conducted to determine the capsular serotype of K. pneumoniae, pulmonary gross pathology and histopathology, and distribution of hvKp in the lungs of Aceh cattle.

Materials and Methods: The presence of K. pneumoniae in Aceh cattle was investigated in two slaughterhouses in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar, Indonesia. Lung tissues with gross pathological lesions were collected from 15 cattle presenting with depression, dehydration, or cachexia. The confirmation and capsular serotyping of K. pneumoniae isolates were performed using polymerase chain reaction. The tissues were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and immunohistochemistry to observe the histopathological lesions and the distribution of the hvKp antigens.

Results: The pneumonic lesions identified in the lungs of Aceh cattle included hyperemia, hemorrhage, consolidation, and atelectasis. K. pneumoniae was isolated in all 15 lung tissues with pathological pneumonic lesions. Two patterns of infection were observed histopathologically. Acute infection was characterized by hyperemia, inflammatory cell infiltration, hemorrhage, bronchiolar epithelium hyperplasia, bronchial and bronchiolar obstruction with purulent exudates, edema, and atelectasis. On the other hand, chronic infection was defined by macrophage infiltration, emphysema, bronchial dilatation, pleural fibrosis, and alveolar wall thickening by interstitial fibrosis. Immunohistochemical staining using monospecific antisera induced by the hvKp isolate confirmed the presence of K. pneumoniae-specific antigens in the acute infection, predominantly in the bronchiolar, vascular, and alveolar areas. In contrast, generally diffuse infiltrates were found in the pleura and interstitial alveolar areas in chronic infection.

Conclusion: hvKp can be detected in the lungs of Aceh cattle, representing acute and chronic infections. The distribution of Klebsiella antigens in the lung tissue was consistent with the histopathological findings. Keywords: Aceh cattle, capsular serotyping, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, Klebsiella pneumoniae, lung.

Keywords: Aceh cattle, capsular serotyping, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, Klebsiella pneumoniae, lung.

How to cite this article: Darniati D, Setiyaningsih S, Agungpriyono DR, Handharyani E (2021) First evidence of Klebsiella pneumoniae infection in Aceh cattle: Pathomorphology and antigenic distribution in the lungs, Veterinary World, 14(4): 1007-1013.

Received: 26-11-2020  Accepted: 09-03-2021     Published online: 27-04-2021

Corresponding author: Ekowati Handharyani   E-mail: ekowatieko@apps.ipb.ac.id

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.1007-1013

Copyright: Darniati, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.