Immunohistological demonstration of Rhodococcus equi in a trotter foal.

A 3-month-old female trotter foal was euthanized due to severe dyspnoea. Pathomorphologically a chronic granulomatous to necrotizing pneumonia was found and Rhodoccocus (R.) equi was isolated microbiologically. An immunohistological method using a murine monoclonal antibody against a 15-17 kDa antigen of virulent R. equi was established in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue sections using various antigen retrieval techniques to optimize the staining results. Microwave treatment was most suitable for the demonstration of bacterial antigen localized predominantly in intralesional macrophages. Immunohistology is an additional method for identifying R. equi-infections in equine tissue and may be useful in retrospective studies on paraffin-embedded archive material.