Pathological, immunohistochemical, and molecular findings of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis due to Sarcocystis neuro
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Pathological, immunohistochemical, and molecular findings of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis due to Sarcocystis neurona infection in Brazilian horses Luan Cleber Henker 1 & Marcele Bettim Bandinelli 1 & Caroline Pinto de Andrade 1 & Matheus Viezzer Bianchi 1 & Luciana Sonne 1 & David Driemeier 1 & João Fábio Soares 2 & Saulo Petinatti Pavarini 1 Received: 23 March 2020 / Accepted: 24 September 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) is an important neurologic disease of horses in the American continent caused by Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora hughesi infection. This study describes the pathological, immunohistochemical, and molecular findings of fatal cases of EPM in southern Brazil. A review was performed on a total of 13 cases compatible with EPM, which were diagnosed by postmortem examination in the period of 2010–2017. Epidemiological information was obtained from necropsy reports. Gross and histological lesions were characterized, and cases were subjected to immunohistochemistry antiSarcocystis neurona, Toxoplasma gondii, and Neospora spp. Molecular search was performed using ITS-1 gene PCRs. Microscopic lesions were multifocal in all cases, and more frequently observed in the spinal cord segments and in the rhombencephalon. Intralesional protozoans were histologically detected in five horses, while a positive immunostaining for S. neurona was observed in eleven cases (11/13). Through molecular techniques, six positive cases for the ITS-1 gene were detected, and obtained sequences presented highest similarity with S. neurona. EPM due to S. neurona infection represents an important neurologic disease of horses in Brazil and this disease should be considered as a main differential diagnosis in horses presenting neurologic signs. Keywords Sarcocystis neurona . Neurologic disease . Equine . Parasite
Introduction Equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) is an important neurologic disease of horses in the Americas (Dubey et al. 2015). The condition may be caused either by Sarcocystis neurona (Dubey et al. 2015) or Neospora hughesi infection Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-020-02419-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Luan Cleber Henker [email protected] 1
Setor de Patologia Veterinária, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9090, Prédio 42.505, Bairro Agronomia, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul 91540-000, Brazil
2
Laboratório de Protozoologia e Rickettsiosis Vetoriais, UFRGS, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9090, Bairro Agronomia, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul 91540-000, Brazil
(Marsh et al. 1998); nonetheless, most of the cases are associated with the first (Reed et al. 2016). EPM is a debilitating progressive disease characterized by a wide range of neurological signs according to the parasite distribution in the central nervous system (CNS), which represents a challenge for clinical diagnosis (Dubey
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