2020 Volume 29 Issue 4 Pages 167-170
Atypical mycobacteria （AM） are widely distributed in the environment and cause spontaneous diseases in humans, pigs, birds, and pets such as dogs and cats. However, no cases have been reported in the chinchilla, which is completely housed indoors in Japan. In a general household with five chinchillas, three developed respiratory disorders due to pneumonia. None of them showed any improvement after treatment with antibiotics such as antibacterial and antifungal drugs, and died 14, 44, and 186 days after the first treatment, respectively. Necropsy was performed on two chinchillas. Gross examination revealed caseous nodules in the lungs and digestive organs, and histopathological examination revealed granulomatous inflammation and many acid-fast bacteria in the inflamed macrophages and epithelioid cells. The remaining two chinchillas live without symptoms. It was found that even completely housed animals have a risk of developing lethal AM disease, presenting as a serious respiratory disease, and that the susceptibility of chinchilla to AM varies.
