Infecção por Cylicospirura spp. em gatos-mouriscos (Puma yagouaroundi) em ambiente semiárido.

Abstract

Jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi), feeds on birds, small mammals, reptilians, fishes and arthropodae which are potential intermediate hosts and/or paratenic for parasites. The endoparasites may infect wild felines with theses animals typically showing no evidence of medical signs, excepting when a significant infection exists or the animal presents a state of imunosuppression. Considering this problematic, two cases of Cylicospirura spp. infection in jaguarundi (P. yagouaroundi) were investigated, both of them reported in the semiarid region of Paraíba. Two specimens of jaguarndi were found dead in province of Paraíba’s highways demonstrating traumatic lesions caused by automobiles, having them transported and analysed in the Laboratório de Patologia Animal at UFCG. Through necropsy procedures, multiple fractures and inner organs disruptions were observed due to the vehicles’ shocks; also, whitish nodes were found, varying from 1 to 2 cm in diameter, featuring a solid consistency at the serous surface which extended to the muscular layer and stomach’s mucosa, with nematodes specimina found in their lumen. Similar lesions were observed in the small intestine as well as in the animal’s lungs. In a microscopical analysis, the nodes showed a composition made, in a major portion, of granulomatous inflammatory infiltrate, forming multiples granulomata circled by an accentuated fibrous connective tissue in both stomach and small intestine. At the centre of these granulomata, circular structures that are compatible with pseudocelom nematodes were found, presenting few eosinophilic fluid, thin coelome musculature, abundant lateral strings, circular and vacuolated, large intestines, high cubic epithelium with basilar guidance centers and presence of eosinophilic amorphous material inside. There were also interstitial pneumonia with analogous by injuries nemotades; such morphological traits are known to be related to Cylicospirura spp., which induced the formation of numerous granulomata, causing eosinophilic sclerosing fibroplasia on stomach, discreet enteriris and interstitial pneumonia. The Cylicospirura spp. infection occur in wild gatos-mouriscos (Puma yagouaroundi) in the Brazilian Northeastern semiarid, yet diagnosed through an accidental finding upon necropsy procedures in runned-over animals. The presence of Cylicospirura spp. in the lungs of one of the animals is considered an unusual observation since this organism usually infects organs of the digestive system and, depending on the amount of parasites, may cause the death of native felines.