ABSTRACT
The Eisenmenger ventricular septal defect is an uncommon type of ventricular septal defect characterised in humans by a traditionally perimembranous ventricular septal defect, anterior deviation (cranioventral deviation in small animal patients) of the muscular outlet septum causing malalignment relative to the remainder of the muscular septum, and overriding of the aortic valve. This anomaly is reported infrequently in human patients and was identified in a 45-day-old Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus humboldti, with signs of poor growth and a cardiac murmur. This case report describes the findings in this penguin and summarises the anatomy and classification of this cardiac anomaly. To the authors' knowledge this is the first report of an Eisenmenger ventricular septal defect in a veterinary patient.
Subject(s)
Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular/veterinary , Spheniscidae/abnormalities , Animals , Echocardiography/veterinary , Female , Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular/pathologyABSTRACT
Four Roller pigeons (Columba livia f. dom.) at the Philadelphia Zoo died suddenly. Necropsy examination revealed macroscopic hepatitis. Microscopically, the predominant lesions were in liver, characterized with necrosis and mixed cell inflammatory response. Sarcocystis calchasi-like schizonts and free merozoites were identified in liver. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed that schizonts were in hepatocytes. A few schizonts were in spleen. PCR using S. calchasi-specific primers confirmed the diagnosis. Neither lesions nor protozoa were found in brain and muscles. This is the first report of acute visceral S. calchasi-associated sarcocystosis in naturally infected avian hosts.
Subject(s)
Bird Diseases/parasitology , Columbidae/parasitology , Hepatitis, Animal/parasitology , Sarcocystosis/veterinary , Animals , Animals, Zoo , Bird Diseases/mortality , Bird Diseases/pathology , DNA, Mitochondrial/chemistry , DNA, Protozoan/chemistry , DNA, Protozoan/isolation & purification , Death, Sudden/etiology , Death, Sudden/veterinary , Electron Transport Complex IV/genetics , Hepatitis, Animal/mortality , Hepatocytes/parasitology , Hepatocytes/ultrastructure , Immunohistochemistry/veterinary , Intestines/parasitology , Intestines/pathology , Liver/parasitology , Liver/pathology , Liver/ultrastructure , Microscopy, Electron, Transmission/veterinary , Philadelphia/epidemiology , Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary , RNA, Ribosomal, 28S/genetics , Sarcocystis/genetics , Sarcocystis/pathogenicity , Sarcocystis/ultrastructure , Sarcocystosis/mortality , Sarcocystosis/parasitology , Spleen/parasitologyABSTRACT
The subclinical and clinical Plasmodium elongatum and Plasmodium relictum infections of captive-reared African black-footed penguins (Spheniscus demersus) were evaluated in nine adult and 29 juvenile penguins in the Baltimore Zoo (Maryland, USA) during summer 1988 and winter 1989. Two diagnostic methods were used: Giemsa-stained thin blood films, and subinoculation of penguin blood into 1-day-old Peking ducklings. Chloroquine and primaquine treatment was applied to all parasitemic juvenile penguins. Twenty-nine parasite-free, juvenile penguins were monitored for parasitemia by Giemsa-stained thin blood films every two weeks for 26 weeks of their first outdoor exposure. Eighteen of 29 penguins experienced naturally acquired malaria; 14 were infected with P. elongatum, three with P. relictum, and one bird had a mixed P. relictum and P. elongatum infection. Eleven of 18 juveniles became parasitemic again after chloroquine and primaquine treatments. Based on Giemsa-stained thin blood smears and subinoculation of penguin blood into 1-day-old ducklings, performed in a mosquito-free environment in winter, nine adult penguins had no evidence of Plasmodium spp. infection. After dexmethasone-induced immunosuppression, four of six of these nonparasitemic adult penguins were found to be infected with P. relictum by the blood inoculation method.