ABSTRACT
Disseminated microsporidiosis was diagnosed in an adult female Egyptian fruit bat that died unexpectedly in a zoo. Gross findings, which were minimal, included poor body condition, bilateral renomegaly, and mottling of the liver. Histopathological lesions, which were particularly pronounced in the urogenital tract and liver, consisted primarily of inflammation associated with intracytoplasmic microsporidian spores. Polymerase chain reaction -based methods were used to establish the identity of the microsporidian as Encephalitozoon hellem. E. hellem is an emerging cause of human and avian disease, manifested mainly as opportunistic infection in immunosuppressed patients. This report describes the first documented case of E. hellem in a non-human mammalian species.
Subject(s)
Chiroptera , Encephalitozoon/isolation & purification , Encephalitozoonosis/veterinary , Microsporidiosis/veterinary , Parasitic Diseases, Animal/pathology , Animals , Encephalitozoon/physiology , Encephalitozoonosis/pathology , Fatal Outcome , Female , Liver/parasitology , Liver/pathology , Microsporidiosis/pathology , Urogenital System/parasitology , Urogenital System/pathologyABSTRACT
A 13-year-old male mallard was diagnosed with a non-resectable Sertoli cell tumor involving the left testis. The duck was treated with four doses of single-agent carboplatin given at 4- to 5-week intervals. Heteropenia, 2 weeks after each treatment, was the acute dose-limiting toxicity. The tumor reduced in size by 25%, and the duck's clinical condition improved for 12 months. Sertoli cell tumors are rare in birds, and this is the first report, to our knowledge, of attempted chemotherapy treatment in the veterinary literature.