Lobomycosis

Two Cases of Lacaziosis in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Japan

“…Establishing a diagnosis of lacaziosis requires clinical data, cytologic observation, histopathologic techniques, immunological methods, and detection of species-specific genes because of the difficultly of culture [2,3,8,10]. Furthermore, it seems very unlikely that cutaneous lesions of cauliflower-like eczema in dolphins would be recognized as lacaziosis outside of endemic areas.…”

“…The natural reservoir of L. loboi is unknown; however, its habitat is likely to be in rural environments on the basis of the observed distribution of the disease, and soil and vegetation seem to be probable sources of infection. Lacaziosis in dolphins suggests that some aquatic reservoir also exists [2,3].…”

“…Lacaziosis is a granulomatous chronic skin infection caused by the fungus Lacazia loboi and is endemic in the Atlantic coastal waters of Latin American countries [1][2][3]. Interestingly, L. loboi is a sister taxon with a close phylogenetic relationship to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, which is a highly pathogenic fungal species also endemic in Latin American countries [4].…”

“…The causative fungal species L. loboi, is difficult to culture except by animal passages [2,3,8,10]. Therefore, the diagnosis of lacaziosis is based on clinical symptoms, histopathologic observations, and immunologic tests by cross-reaction to Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, a closely related fungal species of Onygenales [1-4, 7, 8, 10].…”

“…Only one case of dolphin-to-human infection has been reported in a dolphin trainer in The Netherlands who contacted the infected animal, suggesting that lacaziosis should be considered a zoonotic fungal infection [9,10]. Lacaziosis is usually found at altitudes above 200 m in tropical, humid, or subtropical forests with an average temperature of 24 ∘ C and more than 2,000 mm of annual rainfall [1][2][3]8]. The natural reservoir of L. loboi is unknown; however, its habitat is likely to be in rural environments on the basis of the observed distribution of the disease, and soil and vegetation seem to be probable sources of infection.…”