Pythiosis in dogs in the semiarid region of Northeast Brazil

Abstract

RESUMO.-[Pitiose em cães na região semiárida do Nordeste, Brasil.] Descrevem-se os aspectos epidemiológicos, clínicos e patológicos de cinco casos de pitiose em cães na região semiárida do Nordeste. A doença ocorreu em cães com idade entre um e três anos, fêmeas e machos, de diferentes raças. Os cães eram criados em zona urbana, mas ocasionalmente eram levados para zona rural e tinham contato com áreas alagadas. Em um caso não havia informações no histórico sobre acesso à zona rural. Os principais sinais clínicos observados foram perda de peso, vômito, diarreia e tenesmo.Macroscopicamente havia espessamento da parede do intestino com massas firmes, irregulares, com áreas granulares amareladas entremeadas por tecido esbranquiçado, no duodeno, cólon e reto, que se estendia ao pâncreas e linfonodos, além de fígado e vagina. Na pele havia área de alopecia e ulcerações irregulares, algumas contendo pequenas cavitações com secreção serosanguinolenta. Microscopicamente havia inflamação piogranulomatosa e em um caso também havia necrose eosinofílica associada a imagens negativas tubuliformes pela hematoxilina e eosina, fortemente impregnadas pelo GMS e fracamente coradas pelo PAS. As hifas foram fortemente imunomarcadas pela imuno-histoquímica com anticorpo policlonal anti-Pythium insidiosum. A doença ocorre esporadicamente em cães no semiárido nordestino, entretanto deve ser incluída no diagnostico diferencial das doenças em cães com evolução crônica e proliferativa que acometem o sistema gastrintestinal, e frente a lesões cutâneas de difícil tratamento. We describe the epidemiological, clinical and pathological features of five cases of pythiosis in dogs in northeast semiarid. The disease occurred in dogs with age between one and three years, females and males of different breeds. The dogs were created in urban areas, but were occasionally taken to the countryside and then had contact with wetlands. The main clinical signs were weight loss, vomiting, diarrhea and tenesmus. Macroscopically there were intestinal wall thickening with irregular firm masses with yellowish granular areas interspersed with a whitish tissue, involving the duodenum, colon and rectum, extending to the lymph nodes and pancreas, and the vagina and liver. In the skin there were areas of alopecia and irregular ulcerations, some containing small cavitations with serosanguineous secretion. Microscopically there were pyogranulomatous inflammation and in one case also there were eosinophilic necrosis associated with negative images tubuliformes by hematoxylin and eosin, strongly stained by GMS and weakly by PAS. Hyphae were strongly marked by immunohistochemistry with polyclonal anti-Pythium insidiosum. The disease occurs sporadically in dogs in the semiarid Northeast, however should be included in the differential diagnosis of chronic diseases and proliferative aspect of the gastrointestinal system, and front skin lesions of difficult treatment.

Successful management of colonic pythiosis in two dogs in Thailand using antifungal therapy

“…However, the prognosis for pythiosis is not favourable, especially in the gastrointestinal disease form which often involves large segments of the gastrointestinal tract (Frade et al., 2017 ). The successful treatment of the presented cases strengthens the prospect of treating extended stage pythiosis with medicines.…”

Global Distribution and Clinical Features of Pythiosis in Humans and Animals

“…A P. insidiosum infection of the prostate gland was referred to as prostatic pythiosis [120]. Disseminated (or systemic) pythiosis can be defined as the P. insidiosum infection of multiple organs, such as the artery, skin, gastrointestinal tract, bone, lung, brain, and other internal organs [55,90,[121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132].…”

“…Gastrointestinal pythiosis (n = 249) was mostly observed in dogs (n = 235; 94.4%), but rarely detected in other animal species, such as horses (n = 5; 2.0%) [150][151][152][153][154], cats (n = 4; 1.6%) [155][156][157], sheep (n = 2; 0.8%) [158], camels (n = 1; 0.4%) [159], ostrich (n = 1) [85], and tiger (n = 1) [87] (Table 3). Disseminated pythiosis in animals usually began with a cutaneous/subcutaneous infection and progressed to the bone, liver, lung, or other organs [126][127][128][129][130][131][132]160].…”