Estudo retrospectivo da importância da infecção natural por Neospora caninum Dubey et al., 1988 (Apicomplexa: Toxoplasmatinae) em cães sororreagentes com manifestações clínicas e oftálmicas atendidos na região Serrana do estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The species Neospora caninum and its clinical disease neosporosis have advanced considerably among domestic animals. In the first decade after the identification of the species and the description of the clinical manifestations, it was characterized as responsible for causing encephalitis and hind limb paresis in dogs. Even though, it is a disease that can even be fatal in dogs, it has been in the background at the veterinary clinic. This study aims to bring a general clinical view about the natural infection of the disease in dogs, their observed clinical manifestations, as well as the ophthalmological findings in seroreagent dogs to N. caninum. For this purpose, medical records of 201 dogs, seen at an Animal Health Clinical Centre located in the City of Teresópolis, RJ, were reviewed. Animals were included which, for some reason, the complaint and the clinical manifestations made them suspect of neurological and/or muscular disease. As an exclusion criterion, those for whom other diseases were diagnosed that justified their clinical condition. In addition to the complete blood count, the ELISA results were evaluated, and those animals with IgG titers greater than or equal to 1/50 were considered positive, this being the cutoff point used. The percentage found in the medical records included in this study was 39.80% of animals sera-reactive for N. caninum, where the majority of the animals examined were characterized as mixed breed, where the percentage of seroreagents was higher than that observed in animals with pure breed. Given the statistical significance of masticatory muscle atrophy and proprioceptive deficit, present in seroreagent animals, such signs deserve special attention for the clinical suspicion of N caninum infection. Important ophthalmic manifestations such as chorioretinitis and optic neuritis could be identified in seroreactive animals to N. caninum, without the presence of coinfection. To spay could be considered a preventive factor in the congenital infection of puppies in seroreagents bitches. The age range between one and seven years was important in this study, as it included a greater number of seroreactive animals to this etiological agent. Hematological values could not be considered as determinants in the diagnosis of natural infection of N. caninum in dogs attended in Teresópolis, RJ, except when there was a concomitant infection with Ehrlichia canis natural infection.