Background
Lodderomyces elongisporus is a yeast with a worldwide distribution that has been reported as a cause of infection in immunocompromised humans and in a dog that had been quilled by a porcupine.
Objectives
The objective of this report is to describe the clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatment of dermatitis caused by L. elongisporus in a North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum).
Animal
One wild adult male North American porcupine from New York state, USA.
Methods and materials
The porcupine was presented for alopecia and scaling dermatitis over the caudal dorsum. Diagnostic testing included cytological evaluation, trichogram, bacterial and fungal culture, and histopathological examination of skin biopsies.
Results
Histopathological findings from skin specimens demonstrated mild eosinophilic perivascular‐to‐interstitial dermatitis with superficial dermal fibrosis, mild epidermal hyperplasia with moderate‐to‐marked intracorneal and intrafollicular yeast. Fungal culture with matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization confirmed L. elongisporus as the cause of the dermatitis. The porcupine was treated with a six week course of oral itraconazole with clinical resolution.
Clinical relevance
Infection with L. elongisporus should be included as a differential diagnosis for North American porcupines exhibiting signs of dermatitis including scaling and alopecia. This case report may be relevant for the diagnosis and treatment of porcupines with dermatitis and for animals or humans that have been quilled by a porcupine.
The genus Exophiala is composed of ubiquitous, pigmented, saprotrophic fungi and includes both terrestrial and waterborne species. Though Exophiala species are generally considered opportunistic pathogens, exophialosis can be an important cause of morbidity and mortality in aquatic and semi-aquatic species. Over a 6-year period, a captive 32-year-old male eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis), was treated for recurring, slow growing, ventral midline cutaneous masses. Excisional biopsies were characterized histologically by granulomatous dermatitis with low numbers of intralesional, pigmented fungal conidia and hyphae. Bacterial and fungal cultures of the masses and skin were negative on two separate submissions. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of a short fragment of the fungal 28S large subunit (LSU) ribosomal RNA was positive with 100% nucleotide sequence identity to several species of Exophiala. Following recurrence after successive rounds of antifungal therapy, euthanasia was elected. At necropsy, similar dermal granulomatous inflammation and intralesional pigmented fungal elements as observed in excisional biopsies formed a thick band in the dermis and extended through the coelomic body wall. Visceral dissemination was noted in the lung and kidney. Postmortem DNA sequence analysis of a large portion of the fungal LSU as well as the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) from a portion of frozen affected dermis identified the fungus as a novel species, Exophiala sp. 1 (UTHSCSA R-5437).
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