Preliminary morphometric description of eucoleus sp. eggs in dogs from mar del plata city, argentina.

LAVALLÉN C.; PETRIGH ROMINA; ALBANI C. M.; DENEGRI GUILLERMO MARÍA; DOPCHIZ M. C.

Santiago de Chile

Congreso; XXIV CONGRESO LATINOAMERICANO DE PARASITOLOGÍA (FLAP XXIV); 2017

The Eucoleus genus belongs to the Capillaridae family. The taxonomy of this nematodes based on morphological features is rather difficult. The Eucoleus genus includes the canine respiratory parasites Eucoleus aerophilus and Eucoleus boehmi. These parasites have emerged in several European and North American countries but the information continue being scarce.While E. aerophilus is known to require an earthworm as intermediate host, E. boehmi is assumed to have a direct life cycle. Clinically affected dogs show signs of sneezing and mucopurulent nasal discharge that may contain blood. Specific diagnosis of these parasites can be challenging due to the similarity of eggs, the difficulty in recovering adult specimens and their variable clinical presentations. Given that, it is possible that these capilariids have been frequently misdiagnosed underestimating their real frequency worldwide. In Argentina there are few reports of eggs found in dogs faecal samples assigned to E. aerophilus, and only a case of eggs attributable to E. boehmi in a dog from Córdoba province. All of them based on the taxonomic classification of eggs without the evidence of adult specimens. The aim of the present study was to characterize eggs attributable to Eucoleus genus found in dogs faecal samples from Mar del Plata city, Argentina. Eggs were isolated from faecal samples through the Ritchie modified sedimentation technique. The pellet was observed under light microscope and 27 eggs were morphometric characterized. The rest of the pellet was washed twice in PBS 0.1X and distilled water followed by centrifugation at 1030 Xg for 3 minutes. The eggs were aspirated by Pasteur pipettes and transferred to a 30 μm mesh sieve. The sieve was mounted on a metallic slide and covered with gold particles to be examine under the scanning electron microscope. The eggs were barrel-shaped, bipolar plugged and clear to golden in color. The polar plugs were asymmetrically positioned, the multicellular embryo did not filled the egg and the shell was pitted giving a porous appearance. The mean length was 60.7±3.3, while the mean width was 30.1±1.5. The eggs were consistent with the Eucoleus genus and their morphologic characters were similar to those described for eggs of E. boehmi in Europe. This work should be the beginning for further studies about the epidemiology, biology and clinical behavior of this little known parasite in the region of study. Also molecular studies should contribute with the characterization of the Eucoleus genus.