Instituto de Patobiología Veterinaria (IPVet), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Hurlingham, Argentina - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Estación Experimental Agropecuaria (EEA), INTA-Mercedes, Corrientes, Argentina.
Transbound Emerg Dis. 2020 Jul;67 Suppl 2:106-110. doi: 10.1111/tbed.13313. Epub 2019 Sep 9.
Leishmaniosis is a tropical and subtropical vector-borne disease caused by hemoparasites of the genus Leishmania. The disease can infect humans, as well as domestic and wildlife animals. Dogs are the main reservoir for L. infantum, the aetiological agent of visceral leishmaniosis (VL) in America, and a domestic source of L. braziliensis, the most widespread aetiological agent of American tegumentary leishmaniosis. Infected dogs can develop a clinical syndrome called canine leishmaniosis (CanL), which presents with skin lesions, mild fever; additionally hepatomegaly and splenomegaly can be observed, although asymptomatic infections are frequent. Direct microscopic observation of the parasite in bone marrow, blood, skin scrapings and conjunctival swab samples is the gold standard of diagnosis and is usually complemented with serological tests, and to a lesser extent, molecular detection of the parasite. In Argentina, leishmaniosis is an emerging disease, with a growing number of human and canine clinical cases since 2006. Our study was carried out in Mercedes, a town located in the subtropical north-eastern area of Argentina, where dogs with positive parasitological test results for Leishmania spp. must be euthanized according to local regulations. We evaluated the presence of Leishmania spp. DNA in the blood of dogs (n = 166) from urban and peri-urban zones. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood using Chelex 100 resin and a conserved 116 bp region of the kinetoplastid DNA was amplified by conventional PCR. Clinical signs, age and gender were recorded. Our results showed that 120 out of 166 surveyed dogs (72%) were positive for Leishmania spp. DNA of which only seven were positive by parasitological and serological tests. No significant correlation between positive cases and gender or age groups was found. This report shows the high prevalence of this disease in Argentina and contributes to improve public health policy with regard to diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infected dogs.
利什曼病是一种热带和亚热带的虫媒传染病，由利什曼原虫属的血液寄生虫引起。该疾病可感染人类以及家养和野生动物。狗是内脏利什曼病（VL）病原体——婴儿利什曼原虫的主要储存宿主，也是美洲广泛流行的皮肤利什曼原虫的病原体——巴西利什曼原虫的家养来源。受感染的狗可能会发展为一种名为犬利什曼病（CanL）的临床综合征，表现为皮肤损伤、轻度发热；此外，还可能观察到肝脾肿大，尽管无症状感染很常见。寄生虫在骨髓、血液、皮肤刮片和结膜拭子样本中的直接显微镜观察是诊断的金标准，通常辅以血清学检测，在较小程度上，还可以通过分子检测寄生虫。在阿根廷，利什曼病是一种新兴疾病，自 2006 年以来，人类和犬类临床病例不断增加。我们的研究在阿根廷东北部亚热带地区的梅赛德斯镇进行，根据当地规定，对利什曼原虫检测结果呈阳性的狗必须进行安乐死。我们评估了城市和城乡结合部的 166 只狗血液中的利什曼原虫 DNA 的存在情况。使用 Chelex 100 树脂从全血中提取基因组 DNA，并通过常规 PCR 扩增动基体 DNA 的保守 116bp 区域。记录了临床症状、年龄和性别。我们的结果表明，在 166 只被调查的狗中，有 120 只（72%）对利什曼原虫 DNA 呈阳性，其中只有 7 只通过寄生虫学和血清学检测呈阳性。未发现阳性病例与性别或年龄组之间存在显著相关性。本报告显示了这种疾病在阿根廷的高流行率，并有助于改善针对受感染狗的诊断、预防和治疗的公共卫生政策。
