Report of Dirofilaria immitis infection with acute cardiopulmonary complications in a cat from Northeastern Brazil

Authors

  • Marcela Figuerêdo Duarte Moraes Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Departamento de Patologia, Reprodução Animal e Saúde Única
  • Andressa de Souza Pollo Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Departamento de Patologia, Reprodução Animal e Saúde Única
  • Kayana Cunha Marques Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido, Hospital Veterinário
  • Rayr César de Souza Góis Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido, Hospital Veterinário
  • Mirlla Baracho Ferreira Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido, Hospital Veterinário
  • Alessandra Moreira da Silva Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido, Hospital Veterinário
  • Rivaldo Bruno Medeiros de Lucena Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido, Hospital Veterinário
  • Jael Soares Batista Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido, Hospital Veterinário
  • Kilder Filgueira Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido, Hospital Veterinário ; Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Departamento de Clínica Médica https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1619-0190
  • Fábio Parra Sellera Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Departamento de Clínica Médica
  • Archivaldo Reche-Júnior Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Departamento de Clínica Médica
  • Estevam Guilherme Lux Hoppe Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Departamento de Patologia, Reprodução Animal e Saúde Única

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1678-4456.bjvras.2021.186835

Keywords:

Parasitic diseases, Onchocercidae, Heartworm, Dirofilariasis

Abstract

Dirofilariasis is a zoonotic disease caused by Dirofilaria immitis, a nematode found mainly in the pulmonary artery and right chambers of the heart, lungs, and large vessels of dogs. This parasitism also occasionally occurs in cats, causing an amicrofilaremic and asymptomatic infection, resulting in severe illness and rapid death. In this case report, it was described acute clinical signs and histopathological alterations in a domestic cat with heartworm disease from the city of Mossoró, the Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The nematode species, D. immitis, was confirmed by morphological and molecular analyses. This is the first documented and full report of feline heartworm disease in northeastern Brazil.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Alberigi B, Oliveira AC, Vieira GSR, Fernandes PA, Labarthe N, Mendes-de-Almeida F. Unusual feline Dirofilaria immitis infection: a case report. Rev Bras Parasitol Vet. 2020;29(3):e00842. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1984-29612020061. PMid:32785525.

Alho AM, Marcelino I, Colella V, Flanagan C, Silva N, Correia JJ, Latrofa MS, Otranto D, Madeira de Carvalho L. Dirofilaria immitis in pinnipeds and new host record. Parasit Vectors. 2017;10(1):142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13071-017-2073-0. PMid:28288690.

Ames MK. Heartworm disease. In: Hopper KJ, Rozanski E, Silverstein DC. Textbook of small animal emergency medicine. New Jersey, USA: Wiley; 2018. p. 362-71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781119028994.ch58.

Anghel RG, Mitrea IL, Ionită M. Retrospective study on prevalence of canine vector-borne diseases in Bucharest area. Rev Rom Med Vet. 2016;26:27-32.

Bag S, Saha B, Mehta O, Anbumani D, Kumar N, Dayal M, Pant A, Kumar P, Saxena S, Allin KH, Hansen T, Arumugam M, Vestergaard H, Pedersen O, Pereira V, Abraham P, Tripathi R, Wadhwa N, Bhatnagar S, Prakash VG, Radha V, Anjana RM, Mohan V, Takeda K, Kurakawa T, Nair GB, Das B. An improved method for high-quality metagenomics DNA extraction from human and environmental samples. Sci Rep. 2016;6:26775. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep26775. PMid:27240745.

Batista JS, Batista AIV, Santos WLA, Pereira JS, Silva FHA, Félix NS, Lima GRF, Peterlinkar MC, Canela LAO, Mendes ABS, Carneiro NF, Rodrigues VHV. Macroscopic and histopathological changes in dogs parasitized by Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy, 1856) in Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. In: Rodrigues VHV, organizer. Atualidades na saúde e bem-estar animal [Internet].Fortaleza: Editora In Vivo; 2021. Vol. 2; p. 24-35. https://doi.org/10.47242/978-65-993899-0-0-3.

Batista NB, Bezerra NM, Gadelha ICV, Borges MEOB, Cabral SO, Dias CEV, Sakamoto SM, Freitas CIA. Utilização de kit comercial anigen rapid Dirofilaria immitis Ag® em comparação com a técnica de knott modificada no diagnóstico da incidência de cães portadores da dirofilariose. Acta Vet Bras. 2008;2(3):76-9.

Branco AB, Mendes-de-Almeida F, Faria MCF, SouzaDantas LM, Labarthe NV. Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy, 1856) in the neighborhood of a feline case: a study about the transmission. Braz J Vet Parasitol. 2009;18(suppl. 1):14-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.4322/rbpv.018e1003.

Ciuca L, Roman C, Prisco F, Miron L, Acatrinei D, Paciello O, Maurelli MP, Vismarra A, Cringoli G, Rinaldi L. First report of Dirofilaria repens infection in a microfilaraemic cat from Romania. Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports. 2020;22:100497. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vprsr.2020.100497. PMid:33308740.

Dantas-Torres F, Otranto D. Dirofilariosis in the Americas: a more virulent Dirofilaria immitis? Parasit Vectors. 2013;6:288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-6-288. PMid:24274042.

Dillon AR, Warner AE, Brawner W, Hudson J, Tillson M. Activity of pulmonary intravascular macrophages in cats and dogs with and without adult Dirofilaria immitis. Vet Parasitol. 2008;158(3):171-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2008.09.004. PMid:18977090.

Dillon R. Feline Dirofilariasis. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 1984;14(6):1185-99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0195-5616(84)50153-3. PMid:6393552.

Dvorak LD, Preziosi DE, Hitchcock LS. What is your diagnosis? Acute pulmonary thromboembolism secondary to spontaneous death of adult heartworms. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2000;217(2):180-1. http://dx.doi.org/10.2460/javma.2000.217.180. PMid:10909454.

Edgar RC. MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput. Nucleic Acids Res. 2004;32(5):1792-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkh340. PMid:15034147.

Girdan G, Anghel RG, Ioniță M, Mitrea IL. Data on canine heartworm Dirofilaria immitis infection and other vectorborne pathogens in dogs in Bucharest area, Romania. Sci Works Ser C Vet Med (Univ Agron Sci Vet Med Buchar). 2015;61:146-51.

Gordon D, Abajian C, Green P. Consed: a graphical tool for sequence finishing. Genome Res. 1998;8(3):195-202. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.8.3.195.

Holmes R. Feline heartworm disease. Compend Contin Educ Pract Vet. 1993;15:687-95.

Holterman M, van der Wurff A, van den Elsen S, van Megen H, Bongers T, Holovachov O, Bakker J, Helder J. Phylumwide analysis of SSU rDNA reveals deep phylogenetic relationships among nematodes and accelerated evolution toward crown clades. Mol Biol Evol. 2006;23(9):1792-800. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msl044. PMid:16790472.

Ionita M, Enachescu V, Mitrea IL. Preliminary data on serological survey of exposure to arthropod-borne pathogens in stray dogs from Bucharest, Romania. Sci Works Ser C Vet Med (Univ Agron Sci Vet Med Buchar). 2012;58:220-4.

Lee AC, Atkins CE. Understanding feline heartworm infection: disease, diagnosis, and treatment. Top Companion Anim Med. 2010;25(4):224-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.tcam.2010.09.003. PMid:21147476.

Lefoulon E, Bain O, Bourret J, Junker K, Guerrero R, Cañizales I, Kuzmin Y, Satoto TB, Cardenas-Callirgos JM, De Souza Lima S, Raccurt C, Mutafchiev Y, Gavotte L, Martin C. Shaking the tree: multi-locus sequence typing usurps current onchocercid (filarial nematode) phylogeny. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015;9(11):e0004233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004233. PMid:26588229.

Leite LC, Cirio SM, Queiroz VS, Siva MAN, Luz E, Molinari HP, Diniz JMF, Leite SC, Lunelli D, Weber S, Zadorosnei ACB. Dirofilariose canina: revisão de uma zoonose emergente. Rev Acad (Pontif Univ Catól Paraná). 2006;4(4):49-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.7213/cienciaanimal.v4i4.9522.

Levy JK, Snyder PS, Taveres LM, Hooks JL, Pegelow MJ, Slater MR, Hughes KL, Salute ME. Prevalence and risk factors for heartworm infection in cats from northern Florida. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 2003;39(6):533-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.5326/0390533. PMid:14736717.

Litster A, Atwell R. Physiological and haematological findings and clinical observations in a model of acute systemic anaphylaxis in Dirofilaria immitis-sensitised cats. Aust Vet J. 2006;84(5):151-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-0813.2006.tb12768.x. PMid: 16739523.

Magi M, Sebastiani B, Bandecchi P, Prati MC, Guberti V. Seroprevalence of feline heartworm disease in Tuscany. Vet Rec. 2002;150(13):415-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/vr.150.13.415. PMid:11999281.

McCall JW, Genchi C, Kramer LH, Guerrero J, Venco L. Heartworm disease in animals and humans. Adv Parasitol. 2008;66:193-285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0065-308X(08)00204-2. PMid:18486691.

Nelson CT. Heartworm disease. In: Greene CG. Infectious diseases of the dog and cat. Missouri, USA: Elsevier; 2012. p. 865-77.

Otranto D, Deplazes P. Zoonotic nematodes of wild carnivores. Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2019;9:370-83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2018.12.011. PMid:31338295.

Pana D, Mitrea IL, Ionita M. Parasitological screening on canine dirofilariosis, Southern Romania: preliminary data. Rev Sci Parasitol. 2018;19:45-51.

Posada D, Buckley TR. Model selection and model averaging in phylogenetics: advantages of Akaike Information Criterion and Bayesian approaches over likelihood ratio tests. Syst Biol. 2004;53(5):793-808. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10635150490522304. PMid:15545256.

Ralston S, Stemme K, Guerrero J. Preventing feline heartworm disease. Feline Pract. 1998;26(3):18-22.

Ronquist F, Huelsenbeck JP. MrBayes 3: bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. Bioinformatics. 2003;19(12):1572-4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/ btg180. PMid:12912839.

Venco L, Genchi C, Genchi M, Grandi G, Kramer LH. Clinical evolution and radiographic findings of feline heartworm infection in asymptomatic cats. Vet Parasitol. 2008;158(3):232-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2008.09.011. PMid:18952375.

Venco L, Genchi M, Genchi C, Gatti D, Kramer L. Can heartworm prevalence in dogs be used as provisional data for assessing the prevalence of the infection in cats? Vet Parasitol. 2011;176(4):300-3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2011.01.013. PMid:21292401.

Vieira L, Silvestre-Ferreira AC, Fontes-Sousa AP, Balreira AC, Morchón R, Carretón E, Vilhena H, Simón F, Montoya-Alonso JA. Seroprevalence of heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) in feline and canine hosts from central and northern Portugal. J Helminthol. 2015;89(5):625-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022149X14000352. PMid:24824176.

Villanueva-Saz S, Giner J, Verde M, Yzuel A, González A, Lacasta D, Marteles D, Fernández A. Prevalence of microfilariae, antigen and antibodies of feline dirofilariosis infection (Dirofilaria immitis) in the Zaragoza metropolitan area, Spain. Vet Parasitol Reg Stud Reports. 2021;23:100541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vprsr.2021.100541. PMid:33678394

Downloads

Published

2021-12-21

Issue

Section

CASE REPORT

Funding data

How to Cite

Report of Dirofilaria immitis infection with acute cardiopulmonary complications in a cat from Northeastern Brazil. (2021). Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Research and Animal Science, 58, e186835. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1678-4456.bjvras.2021.186835