Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medicine

Enzootic bovine leukosis is a neoplastic disease of dairy cattle and is caused by bovine leukosis virus of Retroviridae family. Disease is characterized by proliferation of immune system cells that is B lymphocytes resulting into the condition of B cell lymphosarcoma. The first case of bovine leukosis was reported in 1871 in Eastern Europe. Enzootic bovine leukosis is more prevalent in the areas of America, Australia, Canada and in some European countries. Anorexia, weakness, weight loss, neurological disorders are some of the clinical signs shown by the infected animal. Sheep is the ideal animal model for the experimental inoculation of BLV. Enzootic bovine leukosisis transmitted by contaminated equipments, biting of insects, milk from infected cow. As such no treatment is available, only symptomatic treatment of infected animal is done.

Bacillary Angiomatosis (BA) is caused by Bartonella henselae or Bartonella quintana reported to be acquired from cats or by trauma. A 40-year-old widow presented with a single large painful tumour over the left index finger at the site of a goat bite. With the history of goat bite, rapid increase in size, a uniformly soft purplish lobulated tumor, which bled on touch, histopathology demonstrating proliferation of capillary sized vessels, in the background of HIV infection, the differential diagnosis was narrowed down to BA and giant pyogenic granuloma. All clinical diagnoses cannot be evidence based all the time, especially in resource poor settings. Therapeutic trials are well known in dermatology and the positive result needs to be considered as evidence for diagnosis in those situations. The remarkable clinical response to oral doxycycline, we feel, could be considered diagnostic of Bartonella infection and hence we report this case.