Microbiological and cytological characterization of coelomic fluid from three captive endangered amphibian Gastrotheca species with edema syndrome: preliminary analysis.

Objective: Edema syndrome is highly prevalent but under researched in captive frogs around the world. The objective of the present study was to characterize at a basic microbiological and cytological level of the bacteria of the edema fluid of 20 individuals of the genus Gastrotheca to determine the presence of possible anaerobic and aerobic bacteria.

Results: Fourteen types of bacteria were identified in the edema fluid, 12 of them at the species level (Pasteurella haemolytica, Hafnia alvei, Enterobacter agglomerans, Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Burkholderia pseudomallei, Salmonella arizonae, Enterobacter gergoviae, Enterobacter sakazakii, Yersinia enterocolitica, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Klebsiella ozaenae) and two at the genus level (Enterococcus spp.

Radiographic and histological evidence of metabolic bone disease in gliding leaf frogs ().

Bone alterations due to metabolic bone disease in captive animal populations can have a negative impact on repopulation and research initiatives. This investigation has the purpose of describing the principal radiographic and anatomopathological findings present in nine gliding leaf frogs () kept in captivity with alterations in their spines and long bones. The observed histopathological findings were in the canalis vertebralis, paraspinal muscle and long bones, and included deformed bones with alteration of the adjacent tissues, alterations in the ossification process, bone degeneration and resorption, decreased number of osteocytes and deposition of osteoid and fibrous material in the compact bone tissue.