HISTOPATHOLOGIC EVALUATION OF PULMONARY LESIONS IN CAMEL IN IRAN (CAMELUS DROMEDARIUS)

Pulmonary infections are of important diseases in camel that jeopardize the health of the animaland decrease its production efficiency. Considering that prevention and treatment of pulmonaryinfections necessitate the knowledge of respiratory diseases and the fact that little information isavailable in this regard in camel, the present study was conducted to investigate the pulmonarylesions using histopathological methods in camels slaughtered. The respiratory tracts of thecamels were thoroughly inspected for lesions. Specimens were fixed in 10% formalin. Next, thesamples were stained using Hematoxilin and eosin stain (H&E) and were evaluated. Theoccurrence of pulmonary lesions was 79.6% (236/447). The occurrence acute interstitialpneumonia, chronic interstitial pneumonia, bronchopneumonia, bronchiolitis, pleuritis andatelectasis were 52.8% (236/447), 5.4% (24/447), 7.8% (35/447), 6.7% (30/447), 3.4% (15/447)and 15.2% (68/447), respectively. The occurrence of pulmonary lesions, acute interstitialpneumonia and bronchopneumonia was higher in fall and winter than spring and summer (P <0.05). In conclusion, the present study showed high occurrence of pulmonary lesions in camels.Moreover, the results revealed higher occurrence of pulmonary lesions in cold seasons.