Actinomicetos diagnosticados em felinos no Sertão da Paraíba.

Abstract

Several actinomycetes are responsible for developing diseases in domestic animals and humans. Causing various clinical manifestations, which may evolve to the death of affected animals. Generally the characteristics of the lesions caused by these microorganisms are similar, whose function of the host tissue response is to surround the microorganism in a cellular contingent delimited by a fibrous capsule, in order to prevent its dispersion via systemic or direct action of the agent in the surrounding region. In histopathological examination, it´s possible to identify a typical cellular architecture, forming granulomas and/or piogranulomas. This dissertation presented to the Graduate Program in Veterinary Medicine of the Federal University of Campina Grande is composed by two chapters constituted by cientific articles. The first chapter was submitted to the Brazilian Veterinary Research Magazine and the second one submitted to the Brazilian Archive of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science. The first article of this dissertation describes the clinical, pathological, Immunohistochemistry and molecular characteristics of mycobacteria in felines diagnosed in the Backland od Paraiba, Brazil. The second article describes four cases of nocardiosis in domestic felines, approaching the main clinical, pathological and morphotintorial features of Nocardia spp. These diseases are sporadically diagnosed in cats and in recent years have been increasing their occurrence in the Animal Pathology Laboratory of the Federal University of Campina Grande. It’s importante to emphasize the diagnosis of feline tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis for local public health because it has zoonotic potential and many of the infected animals show nonspecific clinical signs. And that infections by mycobacteria and by Nocardia spp. should be included in the differential diagnosis of felines with progressive weight loss, lymphadenopathy, dyspnea, piothorax, peritonitis and neurological signs.