Encephalitozoon cuniculi

Encephalitozoon cuniculi

<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Encephalitozoon cuniculi</b></i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b> Levaditi, Nicolau, and Schoen, 1923</b></span></span></span></p> <p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>(Figure 1-40)</b></span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>ETYMOLOGY:</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalito</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (brain) + </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>zoon</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (animal) and </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (rabbit).</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Schuster (1925) described neuropathology associated with meningoencephalitis in cats infected with </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (syn=</span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Nosema</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">) </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> that were apparently normal and healthy. Histopathology performed on a Siamese kitten that had developed spasms, muscle twitching, and depression along with two littermates revealed organisms of </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> in the brain, kidney, spleen, lymph node, and in the tunica media of the blood vessels (van Rensburg and du Plessis, 1971). Waller et al. (1983) noted two cats that had low levels of antibody to the spores of </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> out of a population of 22 cats of which 18 had antibody to </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Toxoplasma gondii</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The responses to experimental infection with </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> of 10, 3- to 14-day-old kittens and 3, 2.5-month-old cats that had also been experimen tally infected with FeLV were followed for a period of 3 to 12 weeks (Pang and Shadduck, 1985). Although </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> was observed in tissue sections of the kidneys of all but one cat, most of these cats showed no signs of infection, All the cats developed a subacute or chronic interstitial nephritis of varying severity with the lesions being markedly more severe in the cats that were also infected with FIV. Meningoencephalitis was observed in 4 of the cats, one of which had received FeLV; however, all lesions were mild. Pneumonia was present in 4 of the cats, 3 of which were those also infected with FeLV. Vascular lesions were seen in none of these cats.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>REFERENCES:</b></span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Levaditi C, S Nicolau, R Schoen. 1923. L'agent étiologique de l'encéphalite épizootique du lapin (</span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">). Comptes Rendus Soc. Biol. 89:1157-1162.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Pang VF, Shadduck JA. 1985. Susceptibility of cats, sheep, and swine to a rabbit isolate of </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">. Am J Vet Res 46:1071-1077.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Schuster J. 1925. Über eine Spontan beim kaninchen auftretende encephalitische Erkrankung. Klinische Wochenschrift 4:550.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">van Rensburg IBJ, du Plessis JL. 1971. Nosematosis in a cat: a case report. J S Afr vet med Assoc 42:327-331.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Waller T, Uggla A, Bergquist NR. 1983. Encepahlitozoonosis and toxoplasmosis diagnosed simultaneously by a novel rapid test; the carbon immunoassay. Proc Third InteSymp Assoc Vet Lab Diag pages 171-177.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Figure 1-40.</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Encephalitozoon</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>cuniculi</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> spores in the kidney of an infected rabbit (Histological section stained with Gram’s stain).</span></span></span></p> &nbsp;