Technique for identifying eggs of Dioctophyme renale in cat urine, employed in silica

Abstract

Dioctofimatosis is a parasitic disease caused by the helminth Dioctophyme renale, having as definitive hosts, dogs, cats, wild animals and also man, as this parasite has zoonotic potential.  It affects the kidneys of its definitive hosts, usually the right, but can also be found in other places. Although a higher occurrence of cases in dogs has been described, there are also reports of this parasitosis in cats. One of the ways of diagnosing the disease is through the visualization of D. renale eggs through the urine exam. However, due to the behavioral characteristics of cats, urine collection in this species is difficult to perform. Therefore, through the study of techniques to search for eggs of this parasite in the urine of cats in silica, present in litter boxes, we seek to facilitate the diagnosis in these animals. To carry out this work, silica samples were contaminated with urine containing D. renale eggs. The techniques used for egg research were: centrifugal-flotation in glycosated hypersaturated solution, in two densities: 1,230g/ml and 1,275g/ml; spontaneous fluctuation in glycosated hypersaturated solution, in two densities: 1.230g/ml and 1.275g/ml and centrifugal-sedimentation. The evaluation of the samples was carried out at different times, distributed as follows: time zero, 6 hours, 12 hours, 18 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, 120 hours, 168 hours, 240 hours and 336 hours after contamination of the material. The centrifugal-sedimentation technique showed the best result, making it possible to identify morphologically viable eggs from D. renale during the 14 days of analysis.