engleski

CUTANEOUS MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX INFECTION IN CATS ORIGINATING FROM THE ISLAND OF HVAR CROATIA

Introduction: Skin granulomas of cats are rarely caused by saprophytic mycobacteria from Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) which are cultivable. MAC skin infection has unspecific cutaneous nodular presentation and three histomorphologic forms: granulomatous, pyogranulomatous and spindle cell. We represent four cases of MAC induced skin granulomas in cats originating from seaport of island Hvar. Materials and Methods: In three cases submitted as skin neoplasia in cats we diagnosed granulomatous inflammation and presumed feline lepromatous leprosy based on granuloma architecture. In fourth case feline leprosy was suspected based on impression smear finding of negatively stained intracellular bacilli taken from ulcerated nodule. Mycobacterial culture was performed from granuloma tissue of two cats. DNA was extracted from formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue and from fresh tissue. Partial fragment of 16S rRNA was amplified and subsequently sequenced and compared with sequences in GenBank. Routine histology and Ziehl-Neelsen staining were performed in fourth case. Results: Mycobacterium organisms were not detected by culture after 12 weeks of cultivation. In first three cases granuloma architecture was rich in foamy macrophages and multinuclear giant cells harboring high amount of slender acid-fast bacilli. Organisms were numerous within spindle cells in fourth case of typical MAC spindle cell proliferation. All sequences were identical. They revealed 100% identity with sequences of MAC members. Conclusions: Mycobacteria growth performances on synthetic media, as well as histological pattern of skin granulomas are not sufficient to distinguish etiology highlighting molecular identification as golden standard.

cat skin; Mycobacterium avium complex; histopathology; granuloma types; genotyping

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