Kurloff cells in peripheral blood and organs of wild capybaras.

Peripheral blood and tissue from twenty-two free-ranging, hunter-killed capybaras (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris) collected between December 1996 and April 1997 in Casanare, Colombia (5 degrees 58'N and 71 degrees 33'W), were examined by light microscopy for Kurloff cells (KCs). Kurloff cells were observed in the blood of one pregnant adult female, and in organs from all the animals, including spleen (21 of 22 animals), liver (18 of 21), lungs (13 of 21), ovary (8 of 11), uterus (7 of 10), bone marrow (13 of 20), kidney (8 of 22), adrenal gland (6 of 20), and lymph node (4 of 14). The anatomic distribution of the KC in the wild capybaras was similar to that of the guinea pig.