LETHAL ENCEPHALITOZOONOSIS IN CYCLOPHOSPHAMIDE-TREATED RABBITS

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Abstract
Encephalitozoonosis is an opportunistic infection in animals and humans. Its clinical form is observed in immunosuppressed hosts. We studied the occurrence of the manifest form of rabbit microsporidiosis under cyclophosphamide immunomodulation in 40 New Zealand rabbits. The experimental animals were intraperitoneally infected with 5 Ã 107Encephalitozoon cuniculispores. Two weeks after infection the animals were treated intraperitoneally with cyclophosphamide, first with 50 mg/kg and then with 15 mg/kg weekly during the 12-week experimental period. Positive controls were eitherE. cuniculi-infected or cyclophosphamide-immunosuppressed animals. The negative control rabbits remained untreated. Both clinical signs of encephalitozoonosis and depression of peripheral blood cell count developed between weeks 4 and 6 in the experimental animals which died during week 6 of the experiment. No clinical signs compatible with encephalitozoonosis were observed in any of the controls. The results suggest that immunosuppression induced by cyclophosphamide can give rise to a lethal form of encephalitozoonosis.