Abstract
Chronic weight loss in marmosets is often associated with wasting marmoset syndrome (WMS), an important disease that occurs in callitrichid colonies around the world. Even though its etiology is very difficult to determine, particular variables, such as weight loss, diarrhea and alopecia, associated or not with infestation in the pancreatic ducts with Trichospirura leptossoma (Nematoda: Thelazioidea), seem to be linked with the syndrome. This study investigated the histopathology of the lungs, duodenum, liver, gallbladder, extrahepatic bile ducts and pancreatic ducts of six common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) suffering from severe non-diarrheic weight loss. Three individuals died naturally and the other three were euthanized. Microscopic findings showed the presence of adult flukes (Platynosomum) in the liver. These flukes, which provoke common infection in cats, were also observed inside the gallbladder as well as in the intra and extrahepatic bile ducts in common marmosets. Portal fibrosis was observed in two animals, which developed chronic fibrosing hepatopathy (biliary pattern, grade 3). The disease progresses without diarrhea and without pancreatic lesions or infestation. With the progression, the animals presented with ascending cholangitis, cholestasis and portal fibrosis, sometimes culminating in secondary biliary cirrhosis. Therefore, this infirmity, associated with chronic weight loss in common marmosets, could be another etiological factor linked with WMS.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Ednólia Camara, Antônio B. da Silva and Geniberto C. dos Santos for assisting with the care of the animals and to Dr. Eveline Pipolo for reviewing the parasitological findings. We are also grateful to three anonymous referees, whose suggestions significantly improved this manuscript. During this project M.B.C.S. was supported by CNPq grants (524409/96, 470601/2003-5 and 308280/2006-7). The maintenance and use of the experimental animals followed the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior guidelines, as well as the recommendations of the Society for Neuroscience (USA).
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Sousa, M.B.C., Leão, A.C., Coutinho, J.F.V. et al. Histopathology findings in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus Linnaeus, 1758) with chronic weight loss associated with bile tract obstruction by infestation with Platynosomum (Loos, 1907). Primates 49, 283–287 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-008-0105-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-008-0105-2