Cytological analysis of tracheal wash and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in health and respiratory disease in dromedary camels

Turke Shawaf; Abdullah Almubarak; Naser Alhumam; Faisal Almathen; Jamal Hussen

doi:10.7717/peerj.11723

Cytological analysis of tracheal wash and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in health and respiratory disease in dromedary camels

PeerJ. 2021 Jul 2:9:e11723. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11723. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Turke Shawaf¹, Abdullah Almubarak², Naser Alhumam², Faisal Almathen^{3

4}, Jamal Hussen²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ The Camel Research Center, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Background: Tracheal wash (TW) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) have proven to be useful tools for the identification of disease-associated changes in the respiratory tract in human and different animal species. In the dromedary camel, little is known about cytological analysis of TW and BAL in health and disease. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cytological composition of TW and BAL in health and respiratory disease in dromedary camels.

Methods: TW and BAL samples were collected from dromedary camels and cytological analysis was performed by microscopic examination of prepared smears. Camels with clinical respiratory disease (n = 18) were compared with apparently healthy (control) camels (n = 9).

Results: In the apparently healthy camels, differential cytological analysis of TW samples identified macrophages and neutrophils as the main cell populations with lesser proportions of lymphocytes and epithelial cells and very rare abundance of eosinophils and mast cells. In the TW of camels with respiratory disease, neutrophils were the most abundant cells followed by macrophages and lymphocytes. In the BAL of healthy camels, macrophages represented the main cell type followed by lymphocytes and neutrophils. In respiratory-diseased camels, BAL samples contained higher percentages of neutrophils with reduced percentages of macrophages and lymphocytes in comparison to camels from the control group. Collectively, the results of the current study revealed higher abundance of neutrophils in the TW and BAL from dromedary camels than many other veterinary species. The cytological patterns of TW and BAL from camels with respiratory diseases were characterized by increased proportion of neutrophils and decreased proportion of macrophages in comparison to healthy camels. The proportion of lymphocytes was also decreased in TW samples from diseased camels.

Keywords: Bronchoalveolar lavage; Camel; Cytology; Respiratory; Tracheal wash.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, under Research Group Support Track (Grant No. 1811001). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.