First report of Colletotrichum fioriniae and C. nymphaeae as Causal Agents of anthracnose on walnut in Italy

English walnut (Juglans regia L.) is species grown either for high quality wood or fruit production. In Italy walnut cultivation occupies an area of about 4600 ha (FAOSTAT, http://www.fao.org/faostat, 2020). In 2019-2020, walnut fruits (cv Lara) with anthracnose symptoms were collected from walnut orchards in Province of Venice (Northern Italy). Affected fruits showed necrotic and circular lesions with acervuli in the center causing the complete mummification of the fruit as described by Da Lio et al., 2018. Orange conidial masses appeared under wet conditions. The fungus was isolated from necrotic tissues and conidial masses were put on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium. Plates were incubated at 25°C for 5 to 7 days. The colonies were white to pink on the upper side and pink with black spots on the reverse. Acervuli formed and produced conidial masses on PDA after 6 days. Culture and conidial morphology were in concordance with published descriptions of C. acutatum sensu lato (Damm et al., 2012). To confirm the identity, internal transcribed spacers (ITS), (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), actin (ACT) and beta-tubulin (TUB2) genes were amplified and sequenced using the primer pairs ITS1/ITS4 (White at al. 1990), GDF1/GDR1 (Guerber et al., 2003), ACT512F/ACT783R and BT2Fd/BT4R primers (Da Lio et al., 2018). The isolates belonged to two different species of Colletotrichum acutatum complex: C. fioriniae (Marcelino & Gouli) and C. nymphaeae (Pass). Sequences of two representative isolates C. fioriniae CREADC-F2317 and C. nymphaeae CREADC-F2372 were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers MZ153170 and MZ191794 (ITS), MZ203522 and MZ224013 (GAPDH), MZ203521 and MZ224012 (ACT), and MZ203523 and MZ224014 (TUB2). For all the genes, isolates had a 100% similarity to multiple C. fioriniae and C. nymphaeae accessions, respectively. Maximum likelihood trees based on concatenated sequences of the four genes were constructed using MEGA 6.0 (Tamura et al., 2013). The phylogenetic analysis grouped the isolates in the C. fioriniae and nymphaeae clusters respectively. The two isolates CREADC-F2317 and CREADC-F2372 were used to confirm pathogenicity on walnut fruits. Fruits of cv Lara were surface disinfected by dipping in 3% NaOCl for 1 min, rinsed in sterile distilled water, and arranged in sterile humid chambers. Fruits were wounded with a sterile needle then inoculated with 20 μl of 106 conidia/ml suspensions of each isolate (one wound per fruit). Fruit treated with sterile distilled water served as a control. Inoculations were conducted on three fruits per replicate and three replicates per treatment arranged in a complete block randomized design. After 7 days incubation at 25 ± 1°C, all the inoculated fruits showed typical anthracnose symptoms and lesions with cream to salmon pink acervuli, whereas the controls remaied healthy. The species C. nymphaeae and C. fioriniae were reisolated from the rotted fruit. Pathogenicity tests were repeated twice with the same results. The morphology of the reisolated fungi was consistent with the inoculated one, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. The species C. fioriniae and C. nymphaeae have been described affecting numerous species worldwide (Damm et al., 2012). C. fioriniae and C. nymphaeae have been previously reported to cause severe anthracnose on walnut, C. fioriniae in France (Da Lio et al., 2018) and Hungary (Varjas et al., 2019) and C. nymphaeae in France (Da Lio et al., 2018) and Brazil (Savian et al., 2019). To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. fioriniae and C. nymphaeae as causal agents of walnut anthracnose in Italy.

First Report of Fusarium asiaticum Causing Stem Rot of Ligusticum chuanxiong in China

Ligusticum chuanxiong (known as Chuanxiong in China) is a traditional edible-medicinal herb, which has been playing important roles in fighting against COVID-19 (Ma et al. 2020). In March 2021, we investigated stem rot of Chuanxiong in six adjacent fields (~100 ha) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The disease incidence was above 5% in each field. Symptomatic plants showed stem rot, watersoaked lesions, and blackening with white hyphae present on the stems. Twelve symptomatic Chuanxiong plants (2 plants/field) were sampled. Diseased tissues from the margins of necrotic lesions were surface sterilized in 75% ethanol for 45 s, and 2% NaClO for 5 min. Samples were then rinsed three times in sterile distilled water and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 25ºC for 72 h. Fourteen fungal cultures were isolated from 18 diseased tissues, of which eight monosporic isolates showed uniform characteristics. The eight fungal isolates showed fluffy white aerial mycelia and produced yellow pigments with age. Mung bean broth was used to induce sporulation. Macroconidia were sickle-shaped, slender, 3- to 5-septate, and averaged 50 to 70 μm in length. Based on morphological features of colonies and conidia, the isolates were tentatively identified as Fusarium spp. (Leslie and Summerell 2006). To identify the species, the partial translation elongation factor 1 alpha (TEF1-α) gene was amplified and sequenced (O’Donnell et al. 1998). TEF1-α sequences of LCSR01, LCSR02 and LCSR05 isolates (GenBank nos. MZ169386, MZ169388 and MZ169387) were 100%, 99.72% and 99.86% identical to that of F. asiaticum strain NRRL 26156, respectively. The phylogenetic tree based on TEF1-α sequences showed these isolates clustered with F. asiaticum using Neighbor-Joining algorithm. Furthermore, these isolates were identified using the specific primer pair Fg16 F/R (Nicholson et al. 1998). The results showed these isolates (GenBank nos. MZ164938, MZ164939 and MZ164940) were 100% identical to F. asiaticum NRRL 26156. Pathogenicity test of the isolate LCSR01 was conducted on Chuanxiong. After wounding Chuanxiong stalks and rhizomes with a sterile needle, the wounds were inoculated with mycelia PDA plugs. A total of 30 Chuanxiong rhizomes and stalks were inoculated with mycelia PDA plugs, and five mock-inoculated Chuanxiong rhizomes and stalks served as controls. After inoculation, the stalks and rhizomes were kept in a moist chamber at 25°C in the dark. At 8 days post inoculation (dpi), all inoculated stalks and rhizomes exhibited water-soaked and blackened lesions. At 10 dpi, the stalks turned soft and decayed, and abundant hyphae grew on the exterior of infected plants, similar to those observed in the field. No disease symptoms were observed on the control plants. The pathogen was re-isolated from the inoculated tissues and the identity was confirmed as described above. Ten fungal cultures were re-isolated from the 10 inoculated tissues, of which nine fungal cultures were F. asiaticum, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. asiaticum causing stem rot of Chuanxiong in China. Chuanxiong has been cultivated in rotation with rice over multiple years. This rotation may have played a role in the increase in inoculum density in soil and stem rot epidemics in Chuanxiong. Diseased Chuanxiong may be contaminated with the mycotoxins produced by F. asciaticum, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol or nivalenol, which may deleteriously affect human health. Therefore, crop rotations should be considered carefully to reduce disease impacts.

First Report of Passion Fruit Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum constrictum

Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) is widely cultivated in tropic and subtropic regions. Because of its unique and intense flavour and high acidity, passion fruit juice concentrate is used in making delectable sauces, desserts, candy, ice cream, sherbet, or blending with other fruit juices. Anthracnose of passion fruit is favored by frequent rainfall and average temperatures above 27°C. In August 2018, anthracnose on passion fruit was observed in commercial plantings in Lincang, Yunnan, China (23.88 N, 100.08 E). Symptoms included lesions of oval to irregular shapes with brown to dark brown borders. Infection covered most of the fruit surface with pink-to-dark sporulation as reported by Tarnowski and Ploetz (2010). A conidial mass from an individual sorus observed on an infected fruit was isolated and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) supplemented with 50 μg ml-1 of streptomycin. From a single microscopic field, two monospore isolates were dissected using a sterile needle, subcultured, and referred to as BXG-1 and BXG-2. Morphological characters including conidia colour, size, and shape were similar between the two isolates. Conidia were aseptate and cylindrical with apex and rounded base. Conidial length ranged from 12.3 to 16.1 µm (avg. 13.5) and width ranged from 5.5 to 6.2 µm (avg. 5.7). Morphologic data were consistent with Colletotrichum constrictum (Damm et al., 2012). To further confirm the fungal species, the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS), partial sequences of actin (ACT), chitin synthase (CHS-1), glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and β-tubulin 2 (TUB2) were amplified and sequenced. Primers and PCR amplification were described by Damm et al. (2012). The sequences were compared to type sequences in GenBank. The results showed the ITS (GenBank accession MW828148 and MW828149), ACT (MW855882 and MW855883), CHS-1 (MW855884 and MW855885), GAPDH (MW855886 and MW855887), and TUB2 (MW855888 and MW855889) sequences of the isolates BXG-1 and BXG-2 were 98% identical with sequence data from strain CBS:128504 of C. constrictum. A maximum likelihood tree was constructed using MEGA-X version 10.1.6 (Kumar et al., 2018) based on a combined dataset of the ITS, ACT, CHS-1, GAPDH, and TUB2 sequences of BXG-1 and BXG-2, and those of 18 Colletotrichum spp. previously deposited in GenBank (Damm et al., 2012). The phylogenetic analysis showed that BXG-1 and BXG-2 belong to the C. constrictum clade. Based on morphology and DNA sequencing, BXG-1 and BXG-2 were identified as C. constrictum. To verify pathogenicity, passion fruit were sprayed with a suspension of 1 × 105 conidia ml–1. Control fruit were sprayed with sterilized water. After inoculation, fruit were incubated in an Artificial Climate Box at 27°C and 80% RH. Necrotic symptoms appeared 8 days after inoculation and were similar to those observed on fruit form the field. The pathogen was reisolated from lesions thus fulfilling Koch’s postulates. C. constrictum has been reported to cause anthracnose of citrus from Australia (Wang et al., 2021) and mango from Italy (Ismail et al., 2015). To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. constrictum causing anthracnose on passion fruit worldwide, and these data will provide useful information for developing effective control strategies.

First Report of Fruit Rot of Sweet Cultivars of Japanese Plum caused by Alternaria alternata, A. arborescens, and A. tenuissima in Chile

During the last two seasons, an unusual fruit rot was observed in four orchards of sweet Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) cultivars located in the Chilean Central Valley (30°00ʼS, 70°42ʼW). The incidence was 5% in Black Majesty, 4% in Red Lyon, and 6% in Sweet Mary cultivars in 2020. Fruits in the field showed a firm, dehydrated, and slightly sunken rot on the blossom end, along with rough and irregular epidermis in the affected area. Internally, the fruit flesh appeared light to dark-brown or olive-green. Symptomatic fruits (n=119) were superficially disinfected (75% ethanol) and, pieces of the pericarp (3 x 3 mm) were removed and placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Isolates of Alternaria spp. were obtained and 9 of these were selected for identification. Colonies were dark olive to gray-brown with white margins, small, catenulate and muriform conidia, produced in single or branched conidiophores. Isolates produced brown to golden-brown, ovoid, ellipsoidal to obclavate conidia with dimensions of 19.7 to 26.7 × 10.0 to 11.9 μm with two to four transverse and zero to three longitudinal septa on 0.05× PDA (Pryor and Michailides 2002) after 7 d at 20°C under 10/14 h light/dark cycles. A molecular analysis was performed by sequencing the nuclear genes RNA polymerase II subunit (RPB2), plasma membrane ATPase (ATP), and the calmodulin (Cal) gene using primers RPB2-5F2/fRPB2-7cR, ATPDF1/ATPDR1, and CALDF1/CALDR1, respectively (Lawrence et al. 2013; Woudenberg et al. 2013). A BLAST search revealed the presence of Alternaria spp. with a 99% to 100% identity with the reference sequences of A. alternata (JQ905182, JQ671874, JQ646208), A. arborescens (JQ646487, JQ671880, JQ646214), and A. tenuissima (JQ811961, JQ811989, JQ646209). Maximum parsimony phylogenetic analysis confirmed the identifications. Sequences were deposited in GenBank as numbers MW514249 to MW514257, MT872324 to MT872332, and MT872314 to MT872322 for RPB2, ATP, and Cal sequences, respectively. All these Alternaria isolates were deposited in the Colección Chilena de Recursos Genéticos Microbianos – INIA, Chillán Chile (RGM3069 to RGM3077). Pathogenicity of A. alternata (n=4), A. arborescens (n=3) and, A. tenuissima (n=2) was tested in Red Lyon plum fruits. Plums were disinfected in 1% sodium hypochlorite for 2 min, rinsed in sterile distilled water for 1 min and dried on absorbent towels in a laminar flow hood. Then, the plums were wounded on the blossom end with a sterile needle (1 x 0.5 mm), inoculated with 10 µl of a conidial suspension (106 conidia/ml), wrapped with Parafilm and maintained in a humid chamber (>95% relative humidity). An equal number of fruits wounded and inoculated with sterile water were used as a control. After 7 days at 20°C, all inoculated fruits developed a dark-brown firm rot with lesion lengths of 24.4 (±3.0) mm, 19.6 (±0.7) mm, and 16.8 (±2.4) mm for A. alternata, A. arborescens and A. tenuissima, respectively. A. alternata was the most aggressive species (P < 0.001). Control fruits remained asymptomatic. Koch’s postulates were fulfilled after the re-isolating the causal agent from the border of the lesions. Leaf spots and fruit rots caused by Alternaria isolates have been reported in stone fruits, including plums (Kim et al. 2005; Long et al. 2021; Moosa et al., 2019; Yang et al. 2014). To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. alternata, A. arborescens, and A. tenuissima associated with fruit rot in sweet Japanese plum cultivars in the field, in Chile.

First Report of Anthracnose on Hymenocallis littoralis Caused by Colletotrichum siamense in China

Spider lily (Hymenocallis littoralis (Jacq.) Salisb.) is a widely cultivated horticultural plant worldwide and has ornamental and medicinal value. Spider lily plants were seriously affected by a leaf spot disease in the campus of Guangdong Ocean University and gardens in Zhanjiang city in February 2018 with an incidence of 30 to 100%. Affected leaves usually developed small circular purple spots, which enlarged to oval spots and large irregular spots. The spots were brown at the center, deep purple at the border and surrounded by a yellow halo. Diseased cultivars were collected in Zhanjiang city, Gangzhou city in Guangdong province and and Zhangping city in Fujian province. Symptomatic leaf samples were disinfested with 1% NaOCl, and cultured on sucrose agar (PSA) at 28 °C for one week. Ten single-spore isolates were recovered from PSA medium. Colonies developing on PSA were grayish white with a regular border. Conidia were straight, hyaline with rounded ends, 4.3 to 6.1×12.8 to 32.1μm (n = 50 conidia of each isolate). Fungal mycelia were hyaline, septate, and branched. Conidia were born on a long conidiogenous cell, appressoria were oval, 6.7 to 10.7 × 5.2 to 6.2 μm (n=50). The isolates were morphologically identified as Colletotrichum sp. (Weir et al. 2012). Tests of pathogenicity were performed according to Koch's postulates using three isolates. Fresh wounds were made with a sterile needle on the healthy surface of leaves of H. littoralis at the 4- to 6-leaf stage and each leaf was covered with a piece of cotton drenched with 200 μL of conidial suspension (106 conidia/ml) from each isolate. Control seedlings were inoculated identically except sterile water was used to drench the cotton. Inoculated plants were placed in a moisturizing light incubator at 25℃ and 80% humidity under a 12-h light/dark cycle for 20 days and examined daily to monitor disease symptom development. Small round brown spots were observed at the inoculation sites 3 days after the inoculation. The brown spots developed into large brown lesions 5 days after inoculation. There were no symptoms observed in the water-inoculated plants. A Colletotrichum spp. strain based on morphology was consistently reisolated from leaves lesions fulfilling Koch’s postulates. For molecular identification, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA, calmodulin (CAL), Tublin (Tub) and Apmat loci of three isolates were amplified using primer pairs of ITS4/ITS5, CL1C/CL2C, T1/T2 and AM-F/AM-R (Sharma et al. 2015). A phylogenetic tree derived from a neighbor-joining analysis of a concatenated alignment of ITS, CAL, Tub and ApMAT sequences was created. The accession numbers of three isolates GZHLCG, ZJHLCG and FJHLCG used in this study were MW553083, MN540457, MN540458 for ITS, MW553087- MW553089 for CL, MW553090-MW553092 for Tub and MW553084-MW553086 for ApMAT. The sequences of the three isolates were aligned with related species of Colletotrichum (Sharma et al. 2015). Analyses based on concatenated data sets of four genes showed that the sequences had high levels of identity to those of the C. siamense strains. According to both morphological and sequence analyses, the H. littoralis pathogen was identified as C. siamense. There is a report of foliar diseases on H. littoralis caused by Colletotrichum sp. (Tan et al., 2009). To our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose on H. littoralis caused by C. siamense in China. Identification of the pathogen provide valuable information for diagnosis and controlling this disease in H. littoralis.

Pathergy Phenomenon

Skin pathergy reaction (SPR) is a hyperreactivity response to needle induced trauma which is characterized by a papule or pustule formation, 24–48 h after sterile-needle prick. It is affected by a wide array of factors, including the physical properties of the needles being used, number of pricks and disease related factors such as male gender, active disease. There is a great variation in reactivity among different populations with very low positivity rate in regions of low prevalence like Northern Europe, and higher prevalance mainly in communities living along the historical Silk Road, like Turkey, China and Middle Eastern countries. SPR is not constant during the disease course, has lost its sensitivity over decades and can be positive in various disorders including Sweet's syndrome, pyoderma gangrenosum, Crohn's diesease, A20 haploinsufficiency, deficiency of IL-1-receptor antagonist and few others. Nevertheless, it is a criteria included into many currently used diagnostic or classification criteria for Behçet's disease. Although, not being fully uncovered yet, available data points to the activation of both innate and adaptive immune system with an inflammatory response mediated by polymorphonuclears and T-cells. In addition to its utility in diagnosis of Behçet's Disease, SPR may serve as a model for investigating the inflammatory pathways involved in the etiopathogenesis of this complex disease.

Fulminant methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus infection: from pinprick to multiorgan failure

A woman in her 60s with diabetes presented to our institution with altered mental status. Preceding symptoms included headaches, nausea and vomiting. One month prior to presentation, she cut her left thumb and developed a pustule, which she occasionally manipulated with a non-sterile needle. On arrival, the patient was in shock, with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 3, requiring emergent intubation and intensive care unit admission. Her initial imaging studies revealed a large pericardial effusion and cerebral subcortical hypodensities. She suffered from a cardiopulmonary arrest with return of spontaneous circulation, with bedside echocardiogram revealing cardiac tamponade. She underwent emergent pericardiocentesis which revealed purulent drainage. Blood, pericardial fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, sputum and urine cultures returned positive for methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. The hospital course was further complicated by refractory septic shock and fulminant multiorgan failure, ultimately leading to her demise.

First Record of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Causing Anthracnose of Banana in Pakistan

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the most widely grown and consumed fruits in Pakistan and all around the world due to their distinct aroma and taste. In 2018, anthracnose symptoms were observed on banana fruit harvested from different plantations of Sindh- a major banana producing Province of Pakistan. Approximately, 25% of banana fruit collected from different plantations were infected. The symptoms consisted of small brown to reddish-brown spots on the fruit surface and then became sunken lesions as the disease progressed. To identify the pathogen, infected tissues (5 mm in diameter) from the margin of the lesions were surface sterilized by dipping in 1% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) for 2 min, 70% ethanol for 30 s, and then rinsed twice with sterile distilled water, plated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA), and incubated at 27°C for 5 days with 12 h light and darkness cycle. Colonies with a similar pattern were consistently isolated and all colonies were sub-cultured using the single-spore method. Colonies first appeared with white colored mycelium and later turned to dark gray. Conidia produced in acervuli were cylindric, hyaline, straight, and aseptate, with both ends rounded. Conidia measured 14.0 ± 0.5 × 3.4 ± 0.6 μm. Conidiomata were dark brown and spherical. On the basis of morphological characterization, the pathogen was identified as Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.) Penz. & Sacc. (Weir et al. 2012). Two independent isolates (PDL2031 and PDL2032) were used for further genetic analysis. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and chitin synthase 1 (CHS-1) gene were amplified from genomic DNA using primer pairs of ITS1/ITS4 and CHS-79F/CHS-345R, respectively (White et al. 1990; Damm et al. 2012). The GenBank accession numbers (MW493198, MW504711 for ITS and MW530421, MW530422 for CHS-1) of the sequences exhibited 99% to 100% identity to multiple sequences of C. gloeosporioides. To conduct a pathogenicity test, 10 healthy fruits were selected and surface sterilized with 70% ethanol followed by a wash of sterilized water. The fruits were stabbed with a sterile needle and a drop of 20 µl of spore suspension (106 spores/ml) was placed on each wound independently. Meanwhile 10 fruits inoculated with sterile water were treated as controls. The fruits were incubated at 27°C with 90% relative humidity for 10 days. Inoculated fruits exhibited symptoms similar to the original infection. No visible lesions appeared on control fruit. C. gloeosporioides was successfully reisolated from the inoculated fruit, confirming Koch’s postulates. Anthracnose of banana is known to be caused by C. musae, C. gloeosporioides, C. siamense, C. tropicale, C. chrysophilum, C. theobromicola, and C. scovillei (Kumar et al. 2017; Peres et al. 2001; Vieira et al. 2017; Zakaria et al. 2009; Zhou et al. 2017). To our knowledge, this is first report of anthracnose of banana caused by C. gloeosporioides in Pakistan. The new disease primarily reduces the quality and yield of Banana. Effective measures should be taken to manage this disease.

Study on Seroprevalence and Associated Factors of Bovine Brucellosis in Selected Districts of Afar National Regional State, Afar, Ethiopia

Bovine brucellosis is among the top five diseases primarily threatening both public health and livestock economy. Available data are limited to central and highland areas of the country leaving documented literature on the disease in cattle to be found hardly in pastoral and agropastoral regions of the country. As a result, the magnitude and extent of the disease remained to be investigated. A cross-sectional study design was conducted on local Afar cattle aged six months and above from February 2017 to January 2019 in selected districts of Afar region. Technically, study districts and kebeles were selected purposively whereas simple random sampling technique was applied to select cattle owners and individual animals for sample collection. An average of 8 ml whole blood was drawn of jugular vein into plain vacutainer tube using sterile needle. Using Thrusfield formula, a total of 420 blood samples were collected. The sera were tested by RBPT and CFT tests for detection of Brucella antibodies. Data were analyzed using Stata v14.0. Of the 420 sera tested by RBPT, 50 were positive for Brucella antibodies providing an overall animal level prevalence of 11.9% and those RBPT positive sera were further retested by specific and sensitive confirmatory CFT test and 24 of the retested samples had come positive for the disease providing an overall individual animal seroprevalence of 5.7% over the three districts. Of the 3 associated factors (sex, age, and district) considered, only sex had significantly associated ( P < 0.05 : 0.036 ) with the disease. To estimate the strength of sex impact, odds ratio was generated using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses with 95% CI and P < 0.05 providing OR of 2.484 (1.061–5.815) and 2.514 (1.041–6.07), respectively. Hence, the computations revealed that male cattle were 2.484 and 2.514 times more likely at higher risk for the disease as compared to their female counterparts.

Surgical management of a case of subcutaneous abscess caused by Staphylococcus aureus in adult White Fulani cow

A White Fulani cow whose record reveals three-year old, weighing about 350kg belonging to DUFARMS of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta was presented with a swelling on the left flank. Clinical evaluation of the animal revealed the following: rectal temperature, 38.2°C, heart rate, 60bpm and respiratory rate, 35bpm. A rectangular shaped mass, soft and warm to touch was palpated on the left flank. Pus was aspirated from the swelling with a sterile needle and syringe, and taken for biogram. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the aspirate which was sensitive to antibiotic, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and gentamycin (Table 1). Total surgical extirpation of the encapsulated abscess was carried out aseptically under sedation and local anaesthesia and managed chemotherapeutically using antimicrobial, analgesic, anti-inflammatory agents post operatively.