Forty-eight canine mammary tumours (CMT) diagnosed at the Histopathology Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Universiti Putra Malaysia, were reviewed retrospectively. Two control groups, one comprising all other cases involving female dogs
and another group comprising only cases of neoplasia involving female dogs diagnosed in the laboratory over the same period of
time were used for comparisons in this study. Fisher’s exact test and logistic regression were used to determine association between
the factors and the risk of CMT. Thirty-nine (81.3%) of the tumours were diagnosed as adenocarcinoma, 8.3% (n=4) each, were the
diagnoses for squamous cell carcinoma and mixed cell tumour. Adenoma had 2.1% (n=1). The prevalence of canine mammary gland
tumours in this study is 39%. When CMT cases were compared with all other cases, significant association was observed with adult
dogs (p = 0.032, logistic regression 0.012) and intact dogs (p = 0.009, logistic regression, 0.003). When CMT cases were compared
with neoplasia cases, significant association was observed with pure breeds (p = 0.025) and intact dogs (p = 0.000034, logistic
regression 0.00042). This study found that pure breed dogs, intact dogs and older dogs ( > 5years) have higher odds of having CMT
in Malaysian dog population.
Leptospirosis is recognised as one of the leading zoonotic diseases and rodents have been implicated as one of the natural reservoirs of the disease. The Malayan porcupines (Hystrix brachyura) which are also a rodent could possibly be a carrier of leptospiral organisms. This study was conducted to determine the serological prevalence of leptospiral infection among captive Malayan porcupines and to disclose the possibility of porcupines as a reservoir for leptospiral infection. Fifty serum samples were obtained from the Malayan porcupines kept in captivity at the Wildlife Conservation Centre, Sungai Dusun, Malaysia. The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) was performed on the serum samples to detect the presence of agglutinating antibodies to a panel of 16 Leptospira serovars (Australis, Autumnalis, Ballum, Bataviae, Canicola, Celledoni, Djasiman, Hardjobovis, Hardjopratjino, Hebdomadis, Hurstbridge, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Javanica, Pomona, Pyrogenes and Sejroe). From the serological test, 18% (n=9/50) of the Malayan porcupines tested had leptospiral antibodies to serovars Javanica (8%), Hurstbridge (4%), Ballum (2%), Celledoni (2%) and Hardjoprajitno (2%). It is seen that this study disclosed a high prevalence of leptospiral infection in the Malayan porcupines tested and indicated that the Malayan porcupines could possibly be a source of leptospirosis to other animals including humans and that they might play an important role in the epidemiology of leptospiral infection in the country.
Garcinia hombroniana has been used in Malay traditional medicine to treat various disorders such as abdominal pain and gonorrhea, and little is known about its toxicological properties. This study investigated the acute toxicological effects of the plant’s leaves aqueous extract using theoral acute toxic class (ATC) method. Twenty-four female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into T1, T2, T3 and control groups. The T1, T2 and T3 rats administered a single oral dose of 300, 2000 and 5000 mg/kg of G. hombroniana leaves aqueous extract, respectively.The animals were checked daily for abnormal clinical signs and mortality rate for 14 days. The body weight, daily food and water consumption were recorded. The haematological and biochemical parameters of blood as well as relative organ weight and tissues histology such as heart, kidney, liver and spleen were evaluated. Results have shown significantly decreased (p< 0.05) food and water consumption in T2 and T3 rats, which returned to normal after 72 hr post administration. No significant differences (p≥ 0.05) in the haematological and serum biochemical parameters in the treated rat groups, compared to the untreated control animals. An increase in the relative weight of spleen was noticed in T3 animals. Congestion of the splenic, hepatic, cardiac and renal tissues was seen in T2 and T3 rats. The oral LD50 was higher than 5000 mg/kg of body weight. Thus, it can be concluded that G. hombroniana aqueous extract shows little toxicity in the laboratory rats and the therapeutic potentials should be further investigated.