Learedius learedi Price 1934…
Arq. Bras. Med. Vet. Zootec., v.58, n.4, p.550-555, 2006
551
Despite the wide geographical distribution and
the large number of trematode species in the
family Spirochiidae, there is no report of their
presence in the Southwestern Atlantic. The
objective of this study was to report the
occurrence of Learedius learedi Price 1934 in
specimens of Chelonia mydas Linnaeus 1758 in
Brazil.
CASE DESCRIPITIONS
The study included 11 juvenile C. mydas
specimens (mean curvilinear carapace length
37.8cm; mean weight 6.2 kg) from Ubatuba,
Northern coast of São Paulo State. The animals
were found dead or died at the TAMAR-IBAMA
Project Marine Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center
between June and August 2005. Eight animals
were found dead after contact with fishing and
three were caught floating near the coast.
Necropsies were performed according to
Wyneken (2001). After opening the celomatic
cavity, heart, spleen, liver, mesenterium, lungs
and kidneys, and body wash from each animal
were collected and processed according to
Snyder and Clopton (2005) adapted technique,
recovering the helminthes in a sedimentation
flask instead of a separator funnel.
The recovered helminthes were fixed in AFA
solution and stained with carmine. Morphometric
analysis was performed, using the Leica Qwin
Lite 3.1 computerized system. After
identification, the specimens were deposited in
the Helminthological Collection at the Instituto
de Biociências at the Universidade Estadual
Paulista (CHIBB-UNESP), Botucatu, State of
São Paulo, Brazil (CHIBB n
os
. 1208 to 1225).
Six (54.6%) of the 11 studied animals were
parasitized by circulatory system trematodes.
Two females were found alive but debilitated
(thin, parasites/epibionts, close to death, without
fibropapiloma tumors), and died during
treatment. The other four, two females and two
males, were found dead after contact with
fishing. All the animals showed good body
condition and only one had skin formations
resembling fibropapiloma tumors.
The two debilitated animals were in poor
condition, with color alterations all over the
carcass (paleness); in one of these 1-2 mm
diameter numerous dark linear nodules were seen
on the serous surface of both small and large
intestines (Fig.1 and 2). The others only showed
respiratory lesions (emphysema and pulmonary
edema), suggesting drowning.
Two hundred and fifty five trematodes were
collected from the parasitized animals. These
helminthes were collected from heart (47.4%),
liver (3.5%), spleen (0.8%), right lung (12.5%),
left lung (3.9%), right kidney (0.4%), left kidney
(1.2%), mesenterium (1.2%), and body wash
(29.1%). They belonged to the L. learedi species
(Fig. 3). Their body were elongated, flattened,
with rounded extremes and mild constriction at
ventral sucker level. Tegumental spines and oral
sucker terminal were present. Prepharynx and
pharynx were absent. They showed long, narrow,
sinuous esophagus with bulbous end; intestinal
cecum bifurcated anterior to the ventral sucker,
with a small anterior loop, ending in the body
posterior end; pedunculated circular ventral
sucker in the body equatorial region; numerous
testes of variable shape (intercecal, pre-ovarian,
and post ventral sucker); external transversally
elongated pre-ovarian seminal vesicle; well
developed cirrus sac with a small internal
seminal vesicle; pars prostatica and ejaculatory
duct; lobed ovary in the posterior region; short
uterus; vitelline follicles extending from the
cecal bifurcation to the body posterior region,
fusiform eggs with unequal bipolar processes
(Fig. 4) and terminal excretory pore. Tab. 1
shows morphometric data.