Zoonotic Paracoccidioidomycosis Ceti

A granulomatous skin lesion displaying yeast-like cells in a bottlenose dolphin, resembling that reported in the skin of humans with Jorge Lôbo disease in Brazil, was reported in Florida, USA in 1971. Both pathogens were believed to be the same pathogen, causing infection in two different animal species. Based on phenotypic features, Lacazia loboi was identified as the causative agent of granulomas in dolphins. Since then, numerous cases of cutaneous granulomas with identical yeast-like cells in the infected tissues have been found in different dolphin species around the coasts of Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Using molecular biology approaches, investigators reported that the DNA sequences extracted from cases of cutaneous granulomas in dolphins were closely related to those of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and far away from the DNA sequences of the disease in humans. Recently, population genetic analysis showed that the etiologic agent of skin granulomas in dolphins was a species distinct from that of humans in the genus Paracoccidioides. Currently, the etiologic agent of skin granulomas in dolphins is known as Paracoccidioides ceti, and the disease is named paracoccidioidomycosis ceti. The chapter deals with the history, epidemiology, clinical, histopathology and other features affecting the skin of infected dolphins.