Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, Animal Health and Biotechnology (SaBio) Group, Ciudad Real, Spain.
Euro Surveill. 2013 Jul 25;18(30):20541. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.es2013.18.30.20541.
Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis) were recently deemed responsible for an outbreak of human leishmaniasis affecting metropolitan Madrid, Spain. However, the reservoir potential of hares in Europe is poorly known. We report a retrospective survey on Leishmania infantum, the causal agent of zoonotic endemic leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean basin, infection status of Iberian, European (Le. europaeus) and Broom (Le. castroviejoi) hares in Spain. Spleen samples from 94 hares were tested by polymerase chain reaction. Sequencing and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assays were performed on positive samples and RFLP patterns compared with those of strains reported in the scientific literature. DNA prevalence in hare spleen samples was 43.6% (95% confidence interval: 33.6-53.6). In all six regions studied at least one positive sample was found. RFLP revealed existence of specific hare strains of L. infantum differing from those reported in wild carnivores in Spain. The widespread presence of L. infantum in the most abundant Spanish hare species and the recent evidence of the ability of naturally infected hares to transmit the pathogen to Phlebotomus perniciosus, its main vector in the western Mediterranean, suggest that hares may have an unexpected role in the epidemiology of L. infantum in Spain.
伊比利亚野兔（Lepus granatensis）最近被认为是导致西班牙马德里大都市人类利什曼病爆发的罪魁祸首。然而，欧洲野兔的储存潜力知之甚少。我们报告了一项关于伊比利亚、欧洲（Le. europaeus）和布罗姆（Le. castroviejoi）野兔中引起人畜共患地方性利什曼病的病原体——婴儿利什曼原虫（Leishmania infantum）感染状况的回顾性调查。对 94 只野兔的脾脏样本进行了聚合酶链反应检测。对阳性样本进行测序和限制性片段长度多态性（RFLP）分析，并将 RFLP 模式与科学文献中报道的菌株进行比较。野兔脾脏样本的 DNA 流行率为 43.6%（95%置信区间：33.6-53.6）。在所研究的六个地区均发现至少有一个阳性样本。RFLP 显示存在特定的野兔利什曼原虫株，与西班牙野生食肉动物中报道的菌株不同。婴儿利什曼原虫在西班牙最丰富的野兔物种中广泛存在，以及最近有证据表明自然感染的野兔能够将病原体传播给其在西地中海的主要媒介——白蛉（Phlebotomus perniciosus），这表明野兔在西班牙婴儿利什曼原虫的流行病学中可能具有意想不到的作用。
