Pathological and parasitological findings in a wild red titi monkey, Callicebus cupreus (Pitheciidae, Platyrrhini)

Abstract

An adult female red titi monkey (Callicebus cupreus) was found in a moribund state below a sleeping site at the Estación Biológica Quebrada Blanco in Peruvian Amazonia. Before death, the animal showed frequent convulsions. Post-mortem examination revealed the presence of Prosthenorchis elegans (Acanthocephala) in the small intestine. Major pathological findings concerned the digestive tract and the liver. Adult P. elegans provoked multifocal subacute to chronic enteritis with formation of ulcers in the small and large intestine. The liver revealed a severe chronic-active granulomatous hepatitis. While the cause of death could not be unambiguously identified, the infestation with P. elegans is likely to have played a key role in the pathogenesis of the chronic ulcerative enteritis and subsequent hepatitis; it possibly had a severe and long-term impact on the host’s resource utilisation and defence against intruding pathogens and toxins of the digestive tract. The death of the animal is attributed to the chronic inflammatory processes in the digestive tract.