Figure 1a: Mucormycosis due to Mucor amphibiorum in a cane toad, Bufo marinus, Townsville, Australia. Granulomas are disseminated widely through the internal organs. These are best seen as small (1-5 mmm diameter), pale nodules in liver. Look carefully and you will also see nodules in the left lung, the spleen, the peritoneum on the right and on the urinary bladder particularly on the right.

Figure 1b: Mucormycosis due to Mucor amphibiorum in a cane toad, Bufo marinus, Townsville, Australia. The typical characteristics of the granulomas of mucormycosis are that they are disseminated fairly regularly through the liver. In more advanced disease they may coallesce. Typically, the spleen is extensively involved and usually most of the normal parencyma is replaced by granulation tissue. In our survey of B. marinus in Australia we found 100% of toads with mucormycosis had splenic lesions. In this view the spleen is seen as a spherical body lying under the vessels in the mesentery in the gap between the left margin of the liver and the lesser curvature of the stomach. Note that the nodules are not the Mucor per se, but the host's reponse to the fungus. Fungal bodies usually make up only a very small proportion of the volume of the nodules.

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