Bandouchova et al. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2011, 53:2 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/53/1/2 R E S E A R C H Open Access Biochemical responses and oxidative stress in Francisella tularensis infection: a European brown hare model Hana Bandouchova1†, Miroslav Pohanka2†, Kristina Vlckova2,3, Veronika Damkova1, Lucie Peckova1, Jana Sedlackova1, Frantisek Treml4†, Frantisek Vitula1, Jiri Pikula1*† Abstract Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate biochemical and oxidative stress responses to experimental F. tularensis infection in European brown hares, an important source of human tularemia infections. Methods: For these purposes we compared the development of an array of biochemical parameters measured in blood plasma using standard procedures of dry chemistry as well as electrochemical devices following a subcutaneous infection with a wild Francisella tularensis subsp. holarctica strain (a single dose of 2.6 × 109 CFU pro toto). Results: Subcutaneous inoculation of a single dose with 2.6 × 109 colony forming units of a wild F. tularensis strain pro toto resulted in the death of two out of five hares. Plasma chemistry profiles were examined on days 2 to 35 post-infection. When compared to controls, the total protein, urea, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase were increased, while albumin, glucose and amylase were decreased. Both uric and ascorbic acids and glutathione dropped on day 2 and then increased significantly on days 6 to 12 and 6 to 14 post-inoculation, respectively. There was a two-fold increase in lipid peroxidation on days 4 to 8 post-inoculation. Conclusions: Contrary to all expectations, the present study demonstrates that the European brown hare shows relatively low susceptibility to tularemia. Therefore, the circumstances of tularemia in hares under natural conditions should be further studied. Background Tularemia is considered a re-emerging zoonosis [1-3] that is endemic under favourable environmental condi- tions [4]. The highly infectious Gram-negative bacterium Francisella tularensis has been reported to cause infec- tion in a wide range of hosts including humans [5,6]. Much attention has also been paid to the role of haema- tophagous arthropods as potential vectors of this zoono- sis [7]. Among wild animals, lagomorphs such as the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) seem to be the most important in terms of public health concern * Correspondence: pikulaj@vfu.cz † Contributed equally 1Department of Veterinary Ecology and Environmental Protection, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Palackeho 1/3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic Full list of author information is available at the end of the article [8-11]. The distribution of natural foci of tularemia was found to be dependent on the population density of the European brown hare [10]. This species of game is a very good indicator of the presence and activity of the causative agent, F. tularensis, in natural foci, and has been used routinely for the surveillance of this zoonosis by the State Veterinary Administration in some areas of the Czech Republic. It is even possible to plot a predic- tion map of the geographic distribution of tularemia using data on European brown hares [12]. Concomi- tantly with tularemia in hares, the incidence of human tularemia is also increasing [7], frequently as a result of handling tularemic hares [5,11,13]. Tularemia is also of interest as a model for the patho- genesis of intracellular bacteria [14]. F. tularensis infec- tion confers oxidative stress upon target cells, and many © 2011 Bandouchova et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.