Abstract
Small mammals have a short lifetime and are strictly associated with their environment. This work aimed to use histopathology to assess the health of Holochilus chacarius in a rice agroecosystem in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso do Sul. During necropsy, fragments of the lung, kidney, skin, liver, and reproductive system of 33 animals were collected and submitted to histological processing. Tissue damages were evaluated as mild, moderate, and severe and arranged in a matrix for further statistical analysis. Furthermore, we used generalized linear models to verify the influence of tissue changes on the body condition, obtained by a regression between body mass and length. In the lungs, we found an intense inflammatory infiltrate associated with anthracosis that had a negative influence on the body’s condition. Also, we observed degenerative and inflammatory changes in the liver, kidneys, skin, and reproductive system that ranged from mild to moderate. The histopathological lesions observed in this study may be associated with environmental alterations of anthropic origin such as the exposure to soot from wildfires and heavy metals, evidenced by lesions in the lung, kidney, and liver. The present study provided a histopathological matrix as a new approach that allows to classify and quantify the tissue alterations. Tissue changes when associated with body condition demonstrated to be an effective tool to assess the health of small free-living mammals, showing that these animals can be used as bioindicators of environmental condition.
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Acknowledgements
We are thankful for the structure provided by Dom Bosco Catholic University and the Federal University of Paraiba.
Funding
This study was funded by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Nível Superior (CAPES – Finance code 001), the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and the Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento do Ensino, Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul (FUNDECT). Amanda Costa Rodrigues received a fellowship from FUNDECT and CNPq (163253/2022-06). Filipe Martins Santos received a fellowship from CAPES (88887.369261/2019–00). Júlia Gindri Bragato Pistori received a fellowship from CNPq (153768/2022-3). Nayara Yoshie Sano received a fellowship from Project Rede Pantanal from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations of Brazil (FINEP Grant No. 01.20.0201.00). Heitor Miraglia Herrera is a fellowship researcher from CNPq (Productivity Scholarship-Level 1C).
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Amanda Costa Rodrigues, Caio Lucca Cação Tognini Ozório, Erica Fernanda Gomes de Sá, Filipe Martins Santos, Gisele Braziliano de Andrade, Heitor Miraglia Herrera, Nayara Yoshie Sano, and Pedro Cordeiro-Estrela. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Amanda Costa Rodrigues, Filipe Martins Santos, Gisele Braziliano de Andrade, and Heitor Miraglia Herrera, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Julia Gindri Bragato Pistori revised the submitted manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The research had an acceptance of the Ethics Committee in the Use of Animals of the Dom Bosco Catholic University (no. 006/2022), of the Federal University of Paraíba (no. 9192091019), and of the System of Authorization and Information in Biodiversity (no. 73472). The license to capture wild animals was authorized by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (no. 72651). The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
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Rodrigues, A.C., de Sá, É.F.G.G., Santos, F.M. et al. Health of Holochilus chacarius (Rodentia: Cricetidae) in rice agroecosystem in a neotropical wetland assessed by histopathology. Environ Monit Assess 196, 407 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12566-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-024-12566-6