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Diagnosis | Taenia serialis infection

Lab Animal volume 40, pages 302–303 (2011)Cite this article

Determining the cause of swelling in the skin of a rabbit can be difficult. The differential diagnosis of a subcutaneous mass in a rabbit is broad and includes abscess, cellulitis, cyst, neoplasia, foreign body, granuloma and traumatic hematoma. Traditional parasite-identification techniques are not useful in identifying subcutaneous parasitic cysts because the parasite's eggs are not present in the feces. Traditionally, excision, fixation and labor-intensive microscopic identification of specific morphometric criteria such as the type of scolex within the cysticercus has been required. Recently, the use of monoclonal antibody to Taenia species and avidin–biotin complex immunohistochemistry has allowed rapid identification of fixed cysticercus lesions2. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of aspirated cyst fluid can provide species-level identification of the cestode before surgical removal3,4.

The T. serialis coenurus cysts can be punctured and the contents aspirated without affecting the rabbit's health. In humans, surgical therapy was the primary treatment for coenurosis and echinococcosis until the 1980s when the first trials of benzimidazoles, mebendazole and albendazole, were published5. Mebendazole, which has been virtually replaced by albendazole owing to its better bioavailability, and praziquantel are efficacious on larval taeniids from experimentally infected rabbits6,7. Praziquantel exerts its action by inducing muscle contraction and vacuolization of the tegument in the growth zone of the neck region of the cestode leading to death8. Albendazole irreversibly binds tubulin, disrupting cell function, with loss of microtubules and cell death8. This treatment is effective is killing cestodes, and death of the cestode larvae leads to a marked inflammatory reaction by the host9. Administration of corticosteroids has been advocated in order to reduce the inflammatory response in humans treated for neurocysticercosis with albendazole10. Use of doxycycline to control the inflammatory response is an alternative treatment that may be more suitable for rabbits11 because they are sensitive to glucocorticoid-induced hepatic steatosis12,13. We did not administer anti-parasitic agents as a follow-up measure to destroy potential undetected coenurus cysts in this rabbit because we wanted to avoid larvicidal-induced inflammation. Our treatment involved only surgical excision of the identified whole coenurus cysts. Leakage of cyst fluid during surgery is unlikely to reseed new cysts, and surgery is considered curative14.

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Figure 3: Photomicrograph of encysted metacestode of the Taenia serialis type isolated from a rabbit.

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Diagnosis | Taenia serialis infection. Lab Anim 40, 302–303 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban1011-302

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