Pathogenesis of Sarcocystis falcatula (Apicomplexa: Sarcocystidae) in the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) III. Pathologic and Quantitative Parasitologic Analysis of Extrapulmonary Disease

Abstract

Forty-four budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) were administered sporocysts of Sarcocystis falcatula orally and were examined at necropsy intervals from less than 12 hr to 168 days. Tissue were examined by touch preparations (of organ cut surfaces), light microscopy, and electron microscopy. Meront and cyst burdens were determined in various organs and correlated with duration of infection, inoculum, and the meront or cyst burdens of other organs. Host inflammatory tissue reactions were quantitated and correlated with meront and cyst burdens. Quantitation of meronts was more accurate in tissue sections than in touch preparations, but quantitation of merozoites was better in touch preparations. More than 97% of meronts were found in capillary, venular, and venous endothelial cells. Cysts were found only in cardiac and skeletal myocytes. Merogony began in the lamina propria of the small intestine less than 12 hr postinoculation (PI). Meronts were in liver and lung by the second day PI and in other organs by 3-7 days PI. Mean meront burdens were highest in lung (33 meronts/mm2), lower in liver and kidney (1-3 meronts/mm2), and infrequent in other organs (less than 0.9 meronts/mm2). Cysts were first seen in cardiac myocytes 7 days PI. They developed through the metrocyte stage and then degenerated, rarely reaching maturity. Cysts were first noted in skeletal muscle at 8 days PI. In leg, upper esophagus, and tongue, cysts matured between 44 and 77 days PI. In pectoral muscles, the majority of cysts degenerated during the late metrocyte and early intermediate stages (28-42 days PI). In addition to a previously reported and often fatal acute interstitial pneumonitis, S. falcatula-infected budgerigars also sustained a chronic active hepatitis, interstitial myocarditis, myositis, nephritis, splenitis, and encephalitis. These lesions weakly correlated with meront burdens in most sites during early infection (up to 50 days PI).