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WHATS YOUR DIAGNOSIS
Diagnosis | Cyniclomyces guttulatus yeast
The unicellular organisms on the slide are the non- pathogenic yeast Cyniclomyces guttulatus, known previously as Saccharomyces guttulata and Saccharomycopsis guttulatus. Van der Walt and Scott proposed the new genus name Cyniclomyces for the genus Saccharomycopsis (Guilliermond) to which this yeast was assigned, as there was confusion resulting from the homonyms Saccharomycopsis (Guilliermond) and Saccharomycopsis (Schinning)1. The yeast Saccharomycopsis capsularis (previously assigned to the genus Endomycopsis (Stelling-Dekker)) is currently assigned to the genus Saccharomycopsis (Schinning)1.
The taxonomic classification of Cyniclomyces guttulatus is outlined in Table 1.
The yeast C. guttulatus was first observed in the stomach and intestinal contents of rabbits by Remak in 1845 (ref. 2). Wilhelmi (1898), working with crude cultures of the yeast, which he obtained by the alternate desiccation and moistening of rabbit feces, succeeded in germinating these spores and reported them as possessing a double cell wall3. The pathogenic status of the yeast was unknown.
Palmeiro4 described the post mortem findings in rabbits that had died; they had discharges from the eyes and nostrils and abscesses on various parts of the body. At necropsy he observed purulent foci in the lungs, hypertrophied liver and lymph nodes and generalized enteritis. He concluded that this organism was responsible for the deaths, as he found it in the nasal and ocular discharges and in the lungs. However, he felt that C. guttulatus was normally present in the stomach and intestine and was pathogenic only under certain conditions. Hajsig and Stilinovic5 reported an epizootic at a large rabbit-breeding center in which affected animals lost appetite; exhibited severe bloat and catarrhal inflammation of the upper respiratory tract and conjunctivae; and produced sticky mucus-covered feces. They isolated C. guttulatus in great numbers from the feces. They considered vitamin A deficiency to be a predisposing factor and believed that it contributed to the development of Cyniclomyces
infection. Devos68 reported C. guttulatus to be the cause of saccharomycosis, a post- mortem finding in rabbits, in three surveys (in 19671968, 1977 and 1978). He found a relative incidence of 1218% saccharomycosis among 278 (1968), 398 (1977) and 405 (1978) rabbits necropsied.
Although reports had attributed the cause of death in rabbits to Cyniclomyces, and the presence of the yeast in...