Malignant rhabdoid tumor of the musk gland and systemic T-cell lymphoma in a masked palm civet (<i>Paguma larvata</i>)

Abstract

A 21-year-old male masked palm civet died after 2 months of continuous abdominal distention and poor appetite. Grossly, both musk glands were markedly swelled. Microscopically, round, polygonal and spindle neoplastic cells proliferated diffusely in the right musk gland and a metastatic focus was observed in the lung. The neoplastic cells had abundant cytoplasm with faintly eosinophilic inclusions that ultrastructurally corresponded to whorl aggregates of intermediate filaments. Immunohistochemically, these cells were positive for vimentin, cytokeratins and glial fibrillary acidic protein and negative for desmin. Based on these findings, the tumor was diagnosed as malignant rhabdoid tumor. Papillary adenoma was seen in the opposite musk gland. T-cell lymphoma of the lymph nodes, small intestine and liver was considered as the cause of death.

Renal morphophysiology is not a significant correlate of observable body condition in Masked Palm Civets (Paguma larvata)

“…One limitation of all previous studies on renal health of P. larvata is that nearly all of them examine a single individual [7,13], or 10 at maximum [10,9], which is not an ideal sample size to draw inference from or to establish baselines for normal renal morphophysiology via sonographic imagery. Therefore, our results provide two major points for consideration: 1) we provide solid baseline averages for kidney size for P. larvata which can be used for future studies on renal health in the species, and 2) we have established that kidney structure is not an adequate indicator of, or rather does not reflect observable body condition for the species.…”