DETERMINAÇÃO DE VALORES DE REFERÊNCIA PARA TESTES OFTÁLMICOS EM AVES DE RAPINA: CARCARÁ (Caracara plancus), GAVIÃO CARIJÓ (Rupornis magnirostris) E CORUJINHA-DO-MATO (Megascops choliba)

Abstract

This study aimed to establish normal parameters for major ophthalmic tests in birds of prey. It was used 14 roadside hawks (Rupornis magnirostris), 7 caracaras (Caracara plancus) and 10 healthy tropical screech owls (Megascops choliba) from the zoo in João Pessoa-PB. The Schirmer Tear Test (STT), the intraocular pressure (IOP), the cytology and the conjunctival bacterial microbiota were studied. The mean and standard deviation of the STT (mm/min) for the roadside hawks were 9,21±3,78 for the right eye (RE) and 9.28 ± 5.10 for the left eye (LE); for the caracaras 8,86±3,33 (RE) e 9,86±3,13 (LE); for the tropical screech owls 1,1±1,19 (RE) e 1,7±1,33 (LE). The results of the IOP (mmHg) were 15.86 ± 3.20 (RE) and 16.36 ± 3.02 (LE) for the roadside hawks; 14.29 ± 2.75 (RE) and 13.43 ± 3.10 (LE) for the caracaras and 16.8 ± 2.78 (RE) and 18.2 ± 3.67 (LE) for the tropical screech owls. There were no significant differences between the right and left eyes for the STT and IOP of each species. It was observed, in the conjunctival cytology of the three species, polyhedral cells in clusters, with oval round shaped nucleus and abundant cytoplasm, besides heterophile, macrophages. Lymphocytes, in a lesser number and also, rare erythrocytes; free bacterial aggregates and phagocytosed by macrophages were visualized in the three species. In the microbiological study, it was observed that the highest prevalence was Gram-positive bacterial isolates. Thus, it is expected that reference values of these ophthalmic tests may subsidies the diagnosis and the appropriate treatment of ophthalmic conditions. Despite the results found in this research, wild bird medicine still requires new studies that seek to fill the gaps with information about the ophthalmic reference parameters.