Kevin Keel

@ucpath.bsky.social

517 Followers 314 Following

Veterinary pathologist, conservation advocate, wildlife-disease scientist, outdoorsman. And I love parasites, but especially the metazoans! Scientific, one-health and naturalist content.

This image is of a transverse section of a trematode (Paramphistomum liorchis) attached to the lining of the rumen. The rumen surface forms small finger-like projections called papillae. The oral sucker, but not the ventral sucker of this fluke is visible in section and the oral sucker is sucking on the rumen papilla.
A sea lion with domoic acid poisoning experiencing involuntary muscle spasms. This is a female sea lion lying on her side on a beach. Her muzzle and left flipper pointing skyward. She has domoic acid poisoning and was experiencing involuntary muscle spasms. Credit: Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute
Photos of a giant bullfrog tadpole. the panel on the left compares it so a similarly sized banana, and a tape measure showing that it is nearly 11 inches long. The right panel compares it to a beer can. It is not the first time I have seen someone use a beer can or a beer bottle as a size reference. I guess you use what you've got. And they are a constant size.
This is a profile of a common egret in full display, sitting in they top of a cypress tree. The nuptial plumes are Lacey feathers protruding from the body. The bird also has a green cere, that is a result of its breeding status.
This is the cut surface of a kidney that has been sectioned longitudinally. Six poorly demarcated, dark-red, wedge-shaped foci extend from the corticomedullary margin to the pelvis and are 4 to 7 mm wide at the corticomedullary junction. One, which corresponds to a cranial cortical depression, is itself slightly depressed on cut surface (infarct).The cortex of the left kidney has five, focal to focally extensive discolored foci that are restricted to the superficial one-half of the cortex. The smallest of these are rectangular, dark red foci in which each edge of the rectangular focus is approximately 5 mm. The largest of the superficial cortical foci consists of a 6 cm long band in the outer one-half of the cortex. All of the larger foci have a pink core with a ground glass surface (necrosis) surrounded by a 1-mm-thick yellow margin that is in turn surrounded by a 1-mm-thick, red outer margin of tissue. Close inspection reveals congested glomeruli in the less affected cortex, but these are not visible in the necrotic regions.
A common egret displays its plumes in the top of a cypress tree. The bird is holding its neck in a semicurl and the plumes are spread behind it like a snow white peacock. The photograph resulted in the whites being a little blown out in the birds back. Hard to get everything balanced with these white birds in a dark swamp.
This is a subgross image of liver with a large tumor containing a blood filled cavity that has multiple sections of tapeworm larvae. A bit of the hepatic parenchyma is on the upper right. H&E-stained section.
MRI of a cat brain. There is a cystic mass in the right temporal lobe that extended to the frontal lobe.
A long, sleek blackbird, a great-tailed grackle (Quiscalus mexicanus) sits perched on a limb looking over his back. The dark irridescent plumage indicates that this is a male. He has a piercing yellow eye, a very long beak and a large tail that is slightly longer than his body.
Two sections ostensibly of ovary are present on this microscope slide. The subgross reveals the slightly basophilic masses with tortuous blood vessels adjacent to them.
Lateral view of an American crow head. The inferior eyelid has a papillomatous mass that extends from the surface. This was confirmed to be a case of avian pox.
A crow walking away from the camera. A nodule extends caudally from the proximal part of the left shank, just below the hock. This is consistent with epidermal hyperplasia and hyperkeratosis due to avian pox.
This photo shows a river otter lying on a log on the bank of a river. The otter is very wet and is staring into the camera. There seems to be a scar on his lip, I presume from fighting.
This slide is a highly magnified sample of brainstem from a rabid bobcat. Ihas a single neuron with branched axon at one end and a large nucleus with a prominent nucleolus at the other end. The cytoplasm has been stained brown by an immunohistochemistry stain specific for the rabies virus. Another process extends from a point adjacent to the bifurcated axon. The unstained nucleolus and the processes give the distinct appearance of a fish.
This is a photo of a fluke, a parasitic flatworm. This is Fascioloides magna, the large liver fluke. It has been cleared giving it an overall golden brown appearance with a clearly delineated GI tract. The oral sucker is visible at the apex of the anterior end. the ventral sucker is visible just behind it. The worm was provided by Dr. Lauren Camp. The photos are mine.
Dome shaped histopathology section of lung with three dark nodules scattered in the parenchyma. The nodules are dark purple (basophilic) and have open spaces visible at low power.
This is a sagital section through two vertebrae and the associated intervertebral disk from a young dog. the intervertebral disk is slightly pear shaped and it's long axis is perpendicular to the vertebral column. There are some clefts that are features of chondrodystrophy. The intervertebral disk is bracketed by physes on either side. These are visible as vertical columns of purple cartilage. The photo is my own. I started to include a plate from the article, but I figured I would just get a nasty letter from Sage for copyright infringement!
This image is of a deep golden-yellow prothonatary warbler sitting on the branches of bald cypress. The bird has grey wings and a dark eye.
This is a golden conure sitting on a branch. The bird has raised its left foot to its mouth and is nibbling on it. The plumage is a rich yellow color with edge of green feathers just visible on the wings. This is a photo I took at ZooParque in Itatiba, Sao Paulo State, Brazil.
This is the image of a poster advertising the 42nd Annual West Coast Veterinary Pathology Conference, May 2nd to 3rd, 2025. The title is Great Gonads and Tubular Tales of Reproductive Pathology. Photos of our speakers, Dalen Agnew, Al Conley and Justin Vidal, are included on the poster.
This is an image of the underside of a red-tailed hawk soaring in a clear blue sky. The hawk is looking downward and wings are outspread. Photo by Kevin Keel
This slide shows the abdominal viscera from a hawk. The liver is situated at the top of the image. It is very large and very dark. The spleen is red and is very enlarged as well. The airsacs are thickened but no discrete plaques are visible.
This is a hematoxylin and eosin stained section of kidney from a bearded dragon. Encephalitozoan pogonae, a microsporidian, expands they cytoplasm of many cells. Nuclei of cells are dark purple and the parenchyma is mostly pink (eosinophilic). The microsporidians are elongate. They have a polar tube and posterior vacuole that create some differential staining of the organism.
A red-tailed hawk in flight and facing the left side of the frame. This is a very darkly pigmented variant of the red-tailed hawk, but it still has a red tail. The wings are outstretched but flex slightly downward. A small nodule is at the base of the beak on the left side. This is likely a proliferative lesion caused by an avian poxvirus.
A sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) coiled up and facing the camera. The raised super-ocular scales look like horns and impart a menacing appearance. The image has a shallow focal plane such that only the eye and adjacent parts of the head are in focus. The rattles, although blurry, are visible in the lower right part of the image.
This is a subgross image of a section of nasal mucosa from a horse that forms a papillary mass. The mucosa is expanded by amyloid, but that is not readily apparent at this magnification. A small amount of hemorrhage is scattered on the surface.
This is a photo of a hematoxylin and eosin-stained microscope slide with three irregularly shaped sections of tissue. All three include sheets of darkly staining cells. The two sections to the left are covered by a thin layer of epithelium and the subepithelial connective tissue is rarefied, consistent with edema.
The slide depicts a section of pancreas with a central pancreatic duct that is filled by multiple sections of small flatworms. It is hard to see much detail in the worms at this magnification, but the fibrous connective tissue around the pancreatic duct might be a bit thick.
This is a photo of a wildfire with a house mostly consumed by fire. The whole image is tinted orange from the flames. The house is still burning, but only the studs remain.
This is a large liver fluke (Fascioloides magna) that has been made translucent (cleared) so that internal organs are visible. The worm is lanceolate or leaf shaped with a narrower end at the top (the head). A small cup shaped structure (oral sucker) is present on the tip of the head. A round structure (the ventral sucker) is a short distance back from the oral sucker. Overall the worm is dark yellow. Along each side of the body a long dark tube extends toward the caudal end of the worm and many branches extend from this towards the sides of the worm. Dr. Lauren Camp provided the worm. I took the photo.
A Canada goose is landing on water, with feet outstretched, it's wings cupped and water spraying away from the bird as it just touches down. This mature bird has a dark, almost black neck and a sharp white chin strap.
This is a title slide for a presentation. The background is a flock of widgeon, a type of duck, sitting on the water with one taking off in flight. The male widgeon have a white strip down the center of their head and irridescent green plumage on the sides of the head. Because of the white on the crown of their head, they used to be called bald pate. The title of the slide is "Avian Influenza: Why and how it is the perfect one-health problem.
A plate of four images. At upper left is a deer with a greatly swollen nose. At upper right is a transverse section throught the inflamed muzzle showing a very thickened subcutis. The lower left image is a macroscopic view of the transverse section of the inflamed skin. The surface is covered by hair. The dermis and subcutis contain dozens of small yellow nodules that glisten and bulge on cut surface. These correspond to foci of pyogranulomatous inflammation. The lower right image is of a histopathology section at high magnification. It has an irregularly shaped, dark pink aggregate (Splendore-Hoepli material) surrounded by sheets of neutrophils and macrophages. A small purple colony of bacteria is encased by the Splendore-Hoepli material.
This is a photo of an out-of-shape, middle-aged, white guy sitting in his faculty office with a little brown dog in his lap. The dog is about 40 lbs, and has short to medium-length, wavy, chocolate-colored hair. This is a Boykin spaniel. The office is very messy. You can see a microscope with a dust cover, an elk skull in the background and a couple of jackets on the back of the door. The dude is wearing a baseball cap, glasses and a very fashionable dark-green sweater that his wife gave him for Christmas.
This is an image of a female white-tailed deer facing away and looking back over her left shoulder. She is uniformly brown and has a very enlarged, bulbous nose. The enlarged nose gives her an appearance similar to that of Bullwinkle, the moose from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. Photo credit: Anthony Davis, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Steller's jay perched on a dead limb. The bird has a tall crest and a dark gray head and shoulders that fade into brilliant blue wings, body and tail
Drake cinnamon teal. This duck is swimming and quartering towards the camera. He has vivid red irises. He has a black bill and the top of the head is very dark, nearly black. The plumage of the head and neck are a deep russet color that fades to lighter shades towards the tail. The back has some barred feathers. A few cattails are in the background.
The upper right corner of the image includes some thin-shelled nematode eggs containing larvae. The remainder of the slide shows the gastointestinal tract of a nematode (Oslerus osleri) which is filled with canine cells that the worm has ingested. Some of the leucocytes in the gut of the worm have prominent brightly eosinophilic (pink) intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies that are consistent with canine distemper virus.
A large Sherman's fox squirrel sitting upright eating pine nuts. The cranial half of this squirrel is black. There is a sharp line that demarcates grey pellage on the caudal half of the squirrel.
Two aggregates of calcium oxalate crystals in the kidney of a flying squirrel under polarized light. Both aggregates have a circular margin, because they fill renal tubules. The crystals are birefringent and under polarized light give off brightly colored hues, almost like an opal. The crystals on the lower right are arranged radially, a common pattern with calcium oxalate. The crystals in the upper left are more variably shaped.
This photo depicts a punch biopsy sample of haired skin with multiple large protozoal cysts in the superficial aspect of the dermis. The cysts have very think cell wall that is very lightly amphophilic. The contents of the cysts are light purple. The individual zoites in the cyst cannot be resolved at this magnification.
A PAS-stained section of lung. Fungal hyphae stain purple and invade the remnants of an airway. The light green counterstain contrasts nicely with the fungal hyphae invading the parenchyma.
Large protozoal cyst (sarcocyst) in a skeletal muscle fiber (myofiber). The muscle cell is greatly enlarged to approximately 500 micrometers long and 250 micrometers wide. The capsule has a frilly margin. The zoites inside the sarcocysts stain purple with a hematoxylin & eosin stain.
Map showing recent earthquakes off the coast of Northern California, in Mendocino County and in Western Nevada.
Juvenile snow goose that is listless and will not try to flee when approached.
This is a histologyh slide showing alternating ribbons of hard (pink or purple) koilin and soft koilin (light purple or amphophilic). This material is produced by the epithelium of the ventriculus (gizzard) of birds. Birds lack teeth to masticate their food and rely on the ventriculus to grind up seeds and other hard items. They often ingest grit to aid in the grinding action. The koilin adds a very tough lining to the ventriculus so that the epithelium is not damaged by this grinding action. Hematoxylin & Eosin stained section.
A large flock of American wigeon on the water, with one flying. A few northern pintails and one Eurasian wigeon are also in the photo.
Small red-eared slider (turtle) entrapped in multiple latex condom rings. When a hatchling the turtle swam through the condom rings. As it grew the condom rings exerted pressure on the shell creating an hour glass-shaped deformity. Photo credit: Steven Kubiski from postmortems we performed at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study.
Two adjacent nodules in the proximal duodenum and the junction of the pyloris in a cougar (Puma concolor) from Oregon. the nodules are covered by relative normal mucosa and have a central pore. Adult nematodes protrude from the pores. They are small curled and light pink
The video demonstrates large flocks of starlings sworling in the air and creating beautiful patterns at a distance. A large number of canvasbacks are on the water in the foreground.
Mature sporangium of Rhinosporidium seeberi showing the beautiful trilaminar cell wall. The outer layer is eosinophilic (pink) and is hypothesized to have some immunoprotective qualities. The thicker middle layer is lightly amphophilic. And the innermost layer is darkly basophilic (purple).
Goofy old white professor dressed up in a fat costume. Correction... a bat costume.
Multiple nodules (slightly polypoid) protruding from nasal mucosa of a dog. The nodules are only slightly darker pink than the more normal mucosa.