Spontaneous cardiomyopathy resembling acute rheumatic heart disease in an owl monkey

A wild-caught male Aotus vociferans died spontaneously during quarantine. Histologic examination of the heart showed several small myocardial arteries replaced with fibrinoid necrosis and adjacent inflammation that included lymphocytes and large histiocytic cells. Less often, similar inflammatory foci were observed in the myocardium interstitium. The lesions observed in the heart of the owl monkey resembled Aschoff bodies.