Lesões traumáticas na pele causadas pelos espinhos de Mimosa pudica e Mimosa debilis em equídeos

Abstract

We studied traumatic injury of the skin in horses caused by traumatic plants, popularly known as "sleep-mary", "Poppy", "scraper", "malice" and "do not touch me". The study was conducted on a farm in the district of Castanhal, northeastern of the state of Para, where there were technical visits, epidemiological study, blood samples, biopsies of affected skin and collection of plants. The study included 25 horses, 14 males and 11 females, aged between six months and eight years. The pasture consisted of Brachiaria humidicola and was heavily invaded by traumatizing plants. The animals showed ulcerative lesions of irregular borders, on the head (nose, muzzle, upper and lower lips and chamfer), oral cavity (buccal vestibule and gum) and limbs (billets, metacarpals and metatarsals and scapular-humeral joint). The histopathological examination revealed foci of cutaneous erosions, characterized by loss and epidermal necrosis with spongiosis and vesicular degeneration of the remaining epidermis and mild inflammatory infiltrate in the underlying dermis, consisting predominantly of macrophages and, to a lesser degree, eosinophils. We identified two plants, Mimosa pudica and Mimosa debilis, both from the Leguminosae Mimosoideae family. Based on these results we can conclude that the skin lesions were caused by the traumatic action of Mimosa pudica and Mimosa debilis.