Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences, December - 2016; Volume – 4(Spl-4-EHIDZ)
Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences
http://www.jebas.org
ISSN No. 2320 – 8694
EQUINE OCULAR SETARIASIS AND ITS MANAGEMENT
Malik Abu Rafee* and Amarpal
Division of Surgery and Radiology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, U.P India-243122
Received – October 15, 2016; Revision – November 02, 2016; Accepted – November 21, 2016
Available Online – December 04, 2016
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18006/2016.4(Spl-4-EHIDZ).S139.S143
KEYWORDS
Ocular setariasis
Eye worm
Equine
Surgery
ABSTRACT
Ocular setariasis is a common vision threatening ophthalmic condition in equine resulting from ectopic
parasitism by Setaria digitata, Setaria equina and Thelazia lacrymalis. The disease occurs mostly in
summer and autumn seasons and it displays signs of lacrimation, photophobia, corneal opacity,
conjunctivitis and loss of vision. Close inspection of the eye reveals a moving worm in the anterior
chamber of the eye. B-mode (brightness mode) ultrasonography helps in the diagnosis in case of
complete opacity. The best treatment is the surgical removal of the parasite under regional/ general
anesthesia. Needle paracentesis at 3 O’ clock and nick incision at 12 O’ clock position are most
commonly used surgical procedure. Both the techniques give good results. A slightly modified
technique of using a 21 gauge needle attached with the syringe to aspirate the worm into the syringe also
gives satisfactory results. In medicinal therapy ivermectin is the most advocated drug for ocular equine
setariasis, but long term tying of medicinal should be avoided and surgery should be advocated. Corneal
opacity is the most common post operative complication reported. Post surgical use of placentrex has
also been advocated to enhance healing and to resolve corneal opacity. The present review is aimed at
etiology, diagnosis and management of ocular setariasis in equine species.
* Corresponding author
E-mail: rafee188@gmail.com (Malik Abu Rafee)
Peer review under responsibility of Journal of Experimental Biology and
Agricultural Sciences.
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S140
Rafee and Amarpal
1 Introduction
2 Diagnosis
Among the most common surgical conditions of equine ocular
setariasis is a vision threatening disease of equine resulting
from ectopic parasitism caused by Setaria spp, a genus of
filaroid worms (Gangwar et al., 2008; Radwan et al., 2016). In
India equine ocular setariosis, an important cause of corneal
opacity is commonly caused by Setaria digitata, Setaria
equina and Thelazia lacrymalis (Sathu, 1974; Ladoucer &
Kazacos, 1981; Parrah et al., 2004; Sellon & Long, 2013). S.
digitata is a parasite of cattle and hoofed animals and is found
mainly in Asia. S. equina infects horses and other equids
worldwide. The usual predilection site of adult Setaria worms
is the peritoneal cavity. Occasionally they can get into the
central nervous system or the eyes (Yadav et al., 2006).
Microfilariae (immature larvae) are found in the blood. The
parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes (Anopheles
peditaneniatus and Culex nilgiricus) through the blood stream.
Adult
female
worms
release
microfilariae
in
the abdominal cavity of their hosts. These microfilariae get
into the blood stream and reach the capillaries in the skin.
Mosquitoes become infected with microfilariae when they feed
blood of infected hosts that contains microfilariae. These
microfilariae develop to infective larvae inside the mosquitoes
in 2 to 3 weeks. The infected mosquitoes then transmit these
infective larvae to other susceptible hosts during their blood
meals.
Lacrimation, photophobia, blepharospasm and corneal opacity
are the common signs seen in horses with eye worm. Keen
inspection of the eye usually reveals moving worm in the
anterior chamber of the eye. The affected eye reacts to bright
flash stimulus and fluorescein staining test is usually negative,
whereas slit-lamp biomicroscopic examination reveals corneal
edema (Tuntivanich et al., 2011). In eyes with complete
corneal opacity B-mode ultrasonography (12 MHz, corneal
contact technique) can be performed to visualize the anterior
chamber and other intraocular structures (Patil et al., 2012).
Though CBC (complete blood count) does not show major
changes but a decrease in erythrocyte count, haemoglobin and
haematocrit , together with leucocytosis and an accelerated
erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) has been reported in
previous studies (Muhammad & Saquib, 2007). Microscopic
examination of wet blood films is also recommended as it
sometimes reveals motile microfilariae. Knott’s test (a
technique for the detection of microfilariae by haemolysis and
concentration of blood samples) can be performed to detect the
microfilariae of the Setaria species (Slim & Fouad, 1965).
The ocular setariasis spreads mostly in summer and autumn
when the mosquito vectors are most prevalent (Mritunjay et al.,
2011; Al-Azawi et al., 2012). The parasite exhibits migratory
behavior in unusual hosts such as horses, donkeys or human
beings and can be found in various organs such as heart, lung,
spleen, kidney, uterus, oviduct, ovary, and urinary bladder
(Varma et al., 1971). All equines are generally more prone for
ocular worm (Pratap, et al., 2005; Jayakumar et al., 2012;
Radwan et al., 2016).The immature worm can also invade eye
(Sreedevi et al., 2002; Tuntivanich et al., 2011) through the
vascular system (Townsend, 2013). The eye infection occurs
when the adult worm meanders through intraocular tissue, thus
it is also called as eye worm.
The infected animals usually display signs of photophobia and
lacrimation (Basak et al., 2007). The serrated cuticle of the
worm and lashing movements within the anterior chamber of
the eye caused severe trauma and inflammation to the cornea
which then results into corneal opacity, which eventually
results into blindness (Jaiswal et al., 2006). Basak et al. (2007)
has reported corneal edema caused by dead filarial worm
attachment to the endothelium in the anterior chamber. The
dead worm possibly liberates toxins into the anterior chamber,
which may be lethal to the endothelium and resulting into
corneal edema. It may lead to devastating sequel like synechia,
cataract, and retinal detachment (Paglia et al., 2004). Though,
the involvement of the eye is commonly unilateral but bilateral
occurrence has also been reported (Shin et al., 2002; Buchoo et
al., 2005).
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3 Surgical treatments
Although both medical and surgical treatments have been
advocated for the equine ocular filariasis (Muhammad &
Saquib, 2007), the best treatment is the surgical removal of the
parasite (Tuntivanich et al., 2011) that can be performed under
general anesthesia or regional nerve blocks with or without
sedation. Regional nerve blocks like supraorbital,
auriculopalpebral and retrobulbar can be performed using 2%
lidocaine as per the standard methods described in literature
(Lumb & Jones, 2001). Akinesis of the eyelids can further be
achieved by blockade of the ventral and dorsal branches of the
palpebral nerve (Facial VII) (Skarda, 1996).
The supraorbital nerve is desensitised as it emerges from the
supraorbital foramen, which is easily palpated 1 cm caudal to
the upper orbital rim, 5–7 cm dorsal to the medial canthus. By
using a 23–25 gauge needle, 1–3 ml lidocaine can be injected
subcutaneously and into the foramen. This desensitises the
forehead and the middle two-thirds of the upper eyelid. Motor
paralysis of the auriculo-palpabral nerve (VII) is achieved by
perineural administration of local anesthetics to this nerve at
the most dorsal point of the zygomatic arch or just caudal to
the vertical ramus of the mandible, just ventral to the
zygomatic arch. The retrobulbar block may be achieved using
a 19 gauge 80 mm long spinal needle passed over the
zygomatic arch in a ventro-medial direction until it encounters
the medial wall of the bony orbit (Fletcher, 2004; Labelle &
Clark-Price, 2013). The cornea and sclera may be desensitised
most effectively spraying topical application of 1% solution of
amethocaine (Durham et al., 1992) or 1% tropicamide
(McMullen et al., 2014).
Equine Ocular Setariasis and Its Management
Surgical interventions used for the treatment of ocular
setariasis include needle paracentesis at 3 O’ clock (Sreedevi et
al., 2002; Vadalia, 2013) and nick incision at 12 O’ clock
(Buchoo et al., 2005). Prior to surgery, it is better that horses
should receive topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent
(0.3% flurbiprofen) along with systemic non-steroidal antiinflammatory agents (flunixin meglumine or ketoprofen) and
antibiotics. For preparation of the eye for surgery topical
antiseptic (like 0.5% betadine) can be used (Patil et al., 2012).
The head is held in still position with a twitch. Eye lids are
retracted with the Castroviejo eye speculum and a stab incision
is made at 12 O’ clock with BP blade No. 11 (Buchoo et al.,
2005). The parasite usually gets ejected along with the aqueous
humor; however, sometimes the parasite gets stuck in the
incision. In such cases the worm is removed with the help of
forceps.
The incision is left unsutured. Dorsal and lateral approaches
allow monitoring of the incision postoperatively and at the
same time does not create the potential for possible suture
trauma associated with excursions of the nictitating membrane
(Kalpravidh et al., 1992). However, when additional protection
of wound by nictitating membrane is required a stab incision at
the ventral margin of limbus is preferred (Patil et al., 2012).
The use of viscoelastic substance like hypromellose is injected
into the anterior chamber to decelerate the vigorous movement
of the worm to facilitate the removal of the worm (Patil et al.,
2012).
In the second method, a 16 gauge needle is inserted into the
anterior chamber of the eye at 3 O’ clock position (Sreedavi et
al., 2002) or at 6-8 O’ clock (Gopinathan et al., 2013) position
of the cornea, approximately 1 mm away from the limbus, as
soon as the worm appear near this site. Due to the aqueous
humor pressure, the eye worm usually escapes through the hub
of the needle or it appears at the puncture site thereby
facilitating removal. Aqueous humor leakage is minimal as the
needle puncture hole is very small (Gopinathan et al., 2013). In
a slightly modified needle technique a 21 gauge needle
attached with the syringe is inserted through the conjunctiva
into the anterior chamber and directed carefully towards the
worm to aspirate the worm into the syringe (Yang et al., 2014).
The puncture site is left without suturing. Needle stabbing
technique, is economical, time saving and recommended for
the removal of parasite (Singh et al., 1976). Postoperatively
sub-conjunctival injection of dexamethasone (2 mg)gentamicin (20 mg) may be given. Topical application of
ofloxacin or other eye ointment is considered.
Corneal opacity at the site of stab incision is the most common
postoperative complication reported (Sharma et al., 2005).
Sometimes it diffuses to involve the whole upper quadrant
(Patil et al., 2012). This takes days to 3 to 8 weeks to get
resolved (Buchoo et al., 2005; Jaiswal et al., 2006; Patil et al.,
2012). Human placenta extract has anti-inflammatory and
analgesic effects and enhance wound healing (Piyali &
Debasish, 2012; Changole et al., 2015; Shukla et al., 2016).
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Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences
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S141
Placentrex facilitate post surgical healing at the insertion site in
equine ocular setariasis (Mritunjay et al., 2011).
4 Medicinal therapies
Taking in consideration complications of surgical treatment
like phthisis bulbi, corneal oedema, and scarring and prolapse
of the iris (Lavach, 1990), various medicinal therapies have
been advocated. However, Medical treatment has not been
considered suitable because of the slow absorption of dead
parasites and the attendant antigenicity (Moore et al., 1983;
Lavach,
1990).
The
standard
antifilarial
drug,
diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC) has given inconsistent
results (Perumal & Seneviratna, 1954; Ahmad & Gupta, 1965).
Also, an inconveniently large number of repeat treatments (for
example, 32 treatments over 45 days) (Razig, 1989) has
precluded DEC as a practical chemotherapeutic agent for
equine setariasis. Muhammad & Saquib (2007) have advocated
a medicinal therapy for ocular equine microfilariasis using
ivermectin and death of the parasite in the eye took 15 days
after administration of ivermectin. These suggested that in
situations in which surgical intervention is difficult, the offlabel use of ivermectin would be appropriate to treat ocular
equine setariasis.
Conclusion
Ocular setariasis commonly known as eye worm is a common
surgical condition of equine eye affecting horse, donkey and
pony equally. The condition can be easily diagnosed on the
basis of clinical symptoms like lacrimation, photophobia,
blepharospasm, corneal opacity and visible worm in the
anterior chamber of the eye. Surgical treatment under regional/
general anesthesia is an effective treatment of the condition.
Though, medicinal therapy with ivermectin is advocated,
however relying on the medicinal treatment for too long should
be avoided. Ophthalmic ointments decreasing inflammation
and chances of infection and/or enhancing the healing can be
used to reduce the chances of postsurgical complication.
Conflict of interest
Authors would hereby like to declare that there is no conflict of
interests that could possibly arise.
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