Identification of the source of histoplasmosis infection in two captive maras (Dolichotis patagonum) from the same colony by using molecular and immunologic assays.

Histoplasma capsulatum was isolated from the spleen of a first infected mara (Dolichotis patagonum) and from a second mara's liver and adrenal gland, both in the same colony at the Africam Safari, Puebla, Mexico. Studies of H. capsulatum isolates, using nested-PCR of a 100-kDa protein coding gene (Hcp100) fragment and a two-primer RAPD-PCR method, suggest that these isolates were spreading in the environment of the maras' enclosure. By using a Dot-ELISA method, sera from mice inoculated with three homogenates of soil samples from the maras' enclosed space developed positive brown spot reactions to a purified H. capsulatum antigen, which identified the probable source of the maras' infection.

Pathological findings in a captive colony of maras (Dolichotis patagonum).

This paper describes the causes of death of 54 maras (Dolichotis patagonum) in a captive colony in Mexico over a period of seven years. There were 35 adults, 11 juveniles, five neonates, two fetuses and one stillbirth--27 males, 21 females and six whose sex was not determined. Trauma was the cause of 25 deaths, and there were eight cases of fatal bacterial infection. Besnoitiosis was the only parasitic disease found frequently (13 cases), and was associated with fatal interstitial pneumonia in three juveniles. Right-sided hypertrophic cardiomyopathy attributed to high altitude was observed in 26 maras, and in three cases death was attributed to acute cardiac dysfunction. Two maras died of disseminated histoplasmosis and two of hyperthermia. Additional causes of death included one case each of uterine torsion, intestinal intussusception, aspiration pneumonia and hydranencephaly. Gastric erosions with luminal haemorrhage were found in 27 of the maras and splenic lymphoid depletion in 20, changes that were attributed to stress.