SOUTO, E. P. F.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/7054552145106319; SOUTO, Erick Platiní Ferreira.
Résumé:
Infectious diseases represent the major cause of death or reason for euthanasia of dogs in
Brazil. While some diseases are often diagnosed, others are only occasionally and are
potentially fatal, such as canine infectious hepatitis and cardiac form of parvovirosis. This
dissertation, presented to the Graduate Program of Veterinary Medicine of the Federal
University of Campina Grande, is divided into two chapters, each chapter being represented
by one scientific article. The first article, submitted to the journal Arquivo Brasileiro de
Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, describes the main epidemiological, clinical and
anatomopathological aspects of cases of infectious canine hepatitis diagnosed in the
Laboratory of Animal Pathology during the period from January 2003 to December 2016. Of
the 1,640 necropsied dogs, 15 were diagnosed as infectious canine hepatitis (0.91%). Of the
dogs affected nine were males and six females. The ages ranged from 45 days to seven years,
being most of them young. Ten animals were mixed breed, four were Poodles and one
Rottweiler. Most of the dogs do not received any vaccine protocol. The dogs came from the
municipalities of Patos, São Mamede and Teixeira, from the backland of the Paraiba,
Northeast of Brazil. Most of the dogs presented clinical course varying from hyperacute to
acute. The main clinical signs were seizure, apathy and hyporexia. At necropsy, the major
alterations were observed in the liver, which was pale to orange and with irregular reddish
areas on the capsular surface, besides accentuation of the lobular pattern and edema in the
wall of the gallbladder. Hemorrhages were observed in several organs. In the histopathology
of the liver there was mainly centrilobular necrosis, associated with intranuclear viral
inclusion bodies in hepatocytes, hemorrhage and discrete mixed inflammatory infiltrate. Viral
inclusions bodies could be visualized also in the vascular endothelium of the encephalon and
in the glomerular capillaries, besides spleen and lymph nodes. The diagnosis was established
based on the characteristic histopathological lesions and was confirmed by
immunohistochemistry. The second article, submitted to the journal Pesquisa Veterinaria
Brasileira, describes epidemiological, clinical, pathological and immunohistochemical aspects
of an outbreak of cardiac parvovirosis in puppies. The outbreak occurred in a kennel located
in Parnamirim, Rio Grande do Norte, Northeastern of Brazil. In a litter of nine pups, one was
stillbirth and six died between 35-57 days of age after cardiopulmonary clinical signs with
evolution of 10 minutes to three days. Of the six puppies that died, two were sent for
necropsy. On gross examination, both animals had discreet pericardial effusion, markedly
distended heart, diffuse pallor in epicardial and myocardial surfaces and dilation of the left
ventricular cavity. In the lungs were observed multifocal reddish areas in the pleural surface.
The livers were diffusely increased in size, with lobular standard accentuation and pale areas
interspersed with dark areas. Microscopically was observed linfohistiocítica myocarditis,
necrotizing, associated with interstitial fibrosis and basophilic intranuclear viral inclusions
corpuscles in cardiomyocytes. In the lungs there were edema and interstitial pneumonia and in
the liver was noted centrilobular to mediozonal degeneration and necrosis associated with
congestion and hemorrhage. The diagnosis was confirmed by immunohistochemistry. With
the accomplishment of these studies it can be considered that infectious canine hepatitis and
the cardiac form of the canine parvovirosis occur occasionally in the diagnostic routine of the
Laboratory of Animal Pathology of the Veterinary Hospital of the UFCG and still represent
important causes of death in dogs.