Gastric habronematidosis in mules: Gastroscopy and histopathology-based diagnosis

This cross-sectional study aimed to describe the presence of gastric habronematidosis using gastroscopy and histopathology as diagnostic methods, in addition to evaluating the relationship between the parasite presence and concurrent gastric diseases. Numerous studies have been carried out with equines, mules not being targeted even though these are representative species because of number and the various agricultural tasks they perform worldwide. To fill this gap in the literature, this study evaluated a population of 97 male and female mules over two years old using two diagnostic methods. Samples were taken from the gastric mucosa of mules presenting lesions compatible with Squamous Gastric Disease (SGD) or Glandular Gastric Disease (GGD). The Spearman's test was used to determine the correlation coefficients between the outcomes and explanatory variables of the study, i.e., parasites with gastritis/equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS)/GGD/SGD/age/sex/body condition score (BCS). Gastroscopy evidenced the presence of nematodes morphologically compatible with Habronema spp. in 11.3 % of the individuals, and histopathology showed that 5.6 % of the mules had inflammatory processes associated with chronic eosinophilic gastritis with intralesional parasites. No correlation (p > 0,05) was found between the presence of parasites and the variables studied. These results confirm the presence of gastric habronematidosis in mules, which has not been reported for this species.