Soft tissue sarcoma in a short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)

An adult male short-beaked echidna in poor body condition was found with a 25 × 12 mm round, ulcerated and bleeding mass on the left side of the face at the base of the beak. The animal responded well to initial supportive care and was referred to a specialist wildlife centre for further assessment and treatment. Clinical pathology showed moderate neutrophilia, mild anaemia, mild elevation in liver enzymes (ALT, AST and ALP) and mild azotaemia. Initial clinical differential diagnoses for the facial mass favoured an inflammatory rather than a neoplastic lesion, based on previous reports. Examination of an incisional biopsy identified a malignant spindle cell proliferation (sarcoma) not amenable to complete surgical excision. The animal was euthanased on humane grounds. Immunohistochemical assessment of the mass showed it to be negative for cytokeratin, desmin, smooth muscle actin, periaxin and MAC387 antibody labelling. Definitive histogenesis was undetermined and a final diagnosis of poorly differentiated sarcoma, unlikely to be of muscle, Schwann cell or histiocytic origin, was made.

Reports of neoplasia in prototherian mammals (monotremes) are rare. To the authors' knowledge this is the first report of such a tumour in a monotreme species and the first immunohistochemical characterisation of a stromal tumour in these animals. The malignant nature of this tumour contrasts with a previous report of benign neoplasia (fibroma) associated with the beak. Although rare, malignant neoplasia should be included in the differential diagnoses of mass lesions in monotremes, despite inflammatory or traumatic mass lesions being more commonly reported.