ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY, SEROLOGIC, AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL STUDIES IN DOGS POSITIVE TO COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS DISEASE, NATURALLY INFECTED

Abstract

Coccidioidomycosis, classified as such as a saprozoonosis disease, which is produced by Coccidioides spp. So far this ailment just had been categorized in two strains C. immitis and C. posadassi. The disease had frequently been associated to dried environments and alkaline soils, where, after rain, fungus spread arthroconidea. The aim of this research was to study the pathological aspects found at necropsy, the serological presence and the spherules existence of the Coccidioides spp. microscopically in naturally infected dogs. From 90 tested animals, serology showed 78.88% positives using Particles agglutination Latex (PAL), and just 21.12% animals were serum-negatives.  At necropsy, there were just 25% animals with suggested lesions to the disease in one or more organs, while 75% animals did not show affected organs.  Cachexia, cough and limp were significant sources of variation (P < 0.05), in relation with the variable presence of spherules. If animal is skinny or not, it does not represent significant sources of variation (P > 0.05). PAL was poorly correlated with affected organs at necropsy and with spherule presence at histopathology (Kappa= 0.1047, p< 0.05). All 22 affected animals (100%) presented lungs lesions and 77.27% on bones. Macroscopic pulmonary affections were evident at level 4 (lung with more of 70% of affection) while 66 (75%) with out lesions. Kappa correlation between suggestive lesions to coccidioidomycosis and presence of spherules is high (K= 1, p< 0.001). It is necessary to conduct studies of concordance of such positive serology animals using a more sensitive technique such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).