VETINDEX

Periódicos Brasileiros em Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia

Toxoplasmose sistêmica em filhotes de gatos

Lima, Telma de SousaSouto, Erick Platini Ferreira deAlves, Rodrigo CruzBezerra, Leiliane da SilvaRibeiro, Roana Cecília dos SantosGaliza, Glauco José Nogueira deSouza, Almir Pereira deDantas, Antônio Flávio Medeiros

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide disease that affects virtually all species of warm-blooded animals. The felids,domestic and wild, are considered the definitive hosts of the protozoan. In Brazil, Toxoplasma gondii infection has beendiagnosed in horses, goats, primates, dogs and cats. In the backlands of Paraíba, the disease has been sporadically reportedaffecting dogs with canine distemper and swine, but cases of systemic toxoplasmosis in cats have not yet been described.The aim of the present study was to describe the main epidemiological, clinical and anatomopathological aspects of twocases of systemic toxoplasmosis in kittens.Cases: Two kittens were affected with three (cat 1) and six (cat 2) months old, females, and crossbreed. The kittens had notbeen vaccinated or dewormed, and were raised with other cats in a peridomiciliary regime in a rural area in the backlandsof Paraíba. Cat 1 was thin, apathetic, dehydrated, tachypneic and with pale mucous membranes. Cat 2, showed inappetence,apathy, jaundice, fever, dehydration, dyspnea and abdominal breathing pattern. At necropsy, non-collapsed, shiny, reddishlungs with multifocal whitish areas, punctuated or nodular, measuring from 0.1 to 0.3 cm in diameter, were found on thepleural surface and parenchyma. The livers were pale, with lobular pattern accentuation, and reddish depressed multifocalareas randomly distributed on the capsular surface. Histologically, multifocal to coalescent areas of necrosis, moderate (cat1) or marked (cat 2), associated with intralesional bradyzoites and tachyzoites and variable lymphoplasmacytic infiltratewere observed. In cat 2, numerous bradyzoites were visualized in the gray matter of the left cerebral hemisphere (temporaland parietal lobes), sometimes associated with a moderate lymphoplasmacytic inflammatory infiltrate. In the perivascularspaces of the...(AU)

Texto completo