Lavado traqueal no monitoramento clínico, hematológico e microbiológico de equinos acometidos por distúrbios respiratórios

Abstract

Pneumonia is a frequent disease in horses, caused by fungi, viruses and bacteria. The objective of this work was to evaluate the microbiological profile of respiratory disorders in horses through tracheal lavage and microbiological culture. This work was divided into two chapters, the first entitled "Microbiological profile of respiratory diseases in horses", where an analysis of variance was performed for each variable obtained in the microbiological culture and clinical examination through the F test and then a Test of Tukey, to identify a difference between them at the 5% level, determining the frequency of fungi and bacteria in the studied animals. Nineteen animals with ages ranging from 3 months to 10 years, regardless of sex or breed, that showed signs of respiratory disease were selected. The results obtained show that the fibrinogen dosage was above the reference values in 17/19 (89.7%) animals. In the microbiological culture, the following pathogens were found: Rhodococcus in 8/19 (42.1%) animals, Aspergillus in 6/19 (31.6%), Klebesiella, Streptococcus and Escherichia coli/Proteus in 1/19 (5.3 % each sample) and 2/19 (10.5%) samples were negative. The second chapter was “Clinical and hematological characterization of foals with pulmonary infection by Rhodococcus equi”, the laboratory analyzes of the samples obtained from the tracheal lavage obtained an efficient result for the early diagnosis. 8/8 (100%) animals were foals ranging from 3 months to 2 years. In the clinical examination, the main alteration found was the sound of pleural rubbing in 7/8 (87.5%) animals. In the fibrinogen dosage, 6/8 (75%) were above the reference values. 1/8 (12.5%) had leukopenia, 3/8 (37.5%) had leukocytosis. The red blood cell and platelet counts were within the reference range in all animals. 2/8 (25%) had low hematocrit and hemoglobin was below reference values in 3/8 (37.5%) animals. The work concludes that the use of tracheal lavage in conjunction with clinical and microbiological analysis is essential for an early diagnosis of diseases that affect the respiratory system of horses.