VMC 311: Systematic Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology (2+1)

CLINICAL SIGNS AND LESIONS

Clinical Signs

• In all species, overt disease is the exception. Highest preva­lence of canine systemic coccidioidomycosis is observed in male dogs, 4 to 7 years of age.
• Young Boxer dogs and Doberman pinschers are highly susceptible.
• Pulmonary disease may be asymptomatic, symptomatic of variable degree, benign and chronic, or progressive.
• Dissemination may occur, but only in the dog and human, and depends on host resistance and the level of exposure.
• There may be respiratory signs (including cough), fever, lameness due to bone involvement, or discharging sinuses from deep lesions.
• The disease is most common in Boxers and Doberman Pinschers.
• The disease has not been reported in cats.
• In cattle, sheep, and swine, the disease is usually asymptomatic, limited to lungs and regional lymph nodes and undiagnosed until slaughter.
  

Lesions

• Gross lesions are white granulomas varying from miliary nodules to irregular masses. Peritoneal, pleural, and pericardial effusions occur.
• The initial lesions are found in the lungs. Systemic disease may involve the meninges, bones, joints, and subcutaneous and cutaneous tissues.
• Lesions may also occur in the lung, brain, liver, spleen, and kidney.
• In acute cases, burrowing abscesses are common.
• In chronic and slowly advancing cases, focal and suppurative granulomatous lesions are common without caseation or calcification.
• Severe, disseminated disease is usually seen only in dogs and humans.
• Cattle and swine are often infected, but the disease is restricted to a few tuberculous-like lesions in the lymph nodes and sometimes the lung.