serosurvey for canine visceral leishmaniasis in rural and urban areas of the brazilian legal amazon

In Brazil, visceral leishmaniasis VL is caused by Leishmania infantum chagasiandshowsawideterritorial dis-tributionamongareas ofdifferentgeographic,climaticand socialaspects.1Dogsarecons

Pleasecitethisarticleinpressas:GuimarãesA,etal.SerosurveyforcaninevisceralleishmaniasisinruralandurbanareasoftheBrazilian LegalAmazon.BrazJInfectDis.2016.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bjid.2016.10.013

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brazjinfectdis2016;x x x(x x):xxx–xxx

w w w e l s e v i e r c o m / l o c a t e / b j i d

The Brazilian Journal of

Letter to the editor

Serosurvey for canine visceral leishmaniasis in

rural and urban areas of the Brazilian Legal

Amazon

Dear Editor:

Leishmaniasisisaworldwidezoonoticdisease,transmitted

by phlebotomine species, causing tegumental and visceral

injuries In Brazil, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by

Leishmania infantum chagasiandshowsawideterritorial

dis-tributionamongareas ofdifferentgeographic,climaticand

socialaspects.1Dogsareconsideredimportantreservoirsof

thediseaseandplayanimportantroleinhumaninfection

Ingeneral,mostofthemareasymptomatic.However,

clini-calsignsininfecteddogsincludecachexia,hairloss,dermal

wounds,weightloss,lymphadenopathy,andlethargy.2

There are very few studies related to canine visceral

leishmaniasis(CVL) intheLegal Amazon region,mainly in

Tocantinsstateandepidemiologicalsurveysarethebasisfor

thediseasecontrolprograms.In2008and2009,thestateof

Tocantis recorded oneofthe highestprevalence, with36.8

and33casesper100,000inhabitants,respectively.In2010,21

municipalitiesinTocantinswereconsideredapriorityregion

inefforts ofVL surveillanceand control.3 Thus, this study

aimedtoinvestigateepidemiologicalvariablesassociatedwith

canineleishmaniasisassessedbyserologyinruralandurban

areaofAraguaína,TocantinsState

Blood samples were collected from 204 dogs from

dif-ferentplaces ofAraguaína city,selectedbynon-probability

convenience, regardless of gender, breed, or age A total

of99 dogs were sampled from 10 villages and rural

prop-erties (Fazenda Nossa Senhora de Fátima, Fazenda Serra

dasPalmeiras,PovoadoNovoHorizonte,PovoadoJacilândia,

Chácara Triângulo, Entroncamento Babaculândia, Fazenda

Amazonas, Povoado Floresta, Fazenda Boa Vista, Povoado

Arac¸ulândia), and 105 dogs from nine urban areas (Vila

CoutoMagalhães,Tiúba,SetorPalmas,TeresaHilário,Senador,

AraguaínaSul,SãoJoão,Barros).Samplecollectionwas

con-ductedinagreementwiththeEthicalPrinciplesforResearch

underinstitutionalwatchoftheTropicalMedicineFoundation

ofTocantinsEthicalCommittee

Prior to blood collection, the dog owners signed an

informed consent form and answered a standardized

questionnaireaimingtoidentifypossiblerisk factors

asso-ciated withthe disease.Information collected of the dogs

included gender, age, breed, major type of environment

(indoor/outdoor), cleaning frequency of animal’s area, and location

Serumsamplesweresubmittedtoindirect immunofluores-centassay(IFA)withantigensofLeishmania chagasi,adopting

40asthecutofftiterforpositivity.4Possiblestatistical asso-ciationbetweenepidemiologicaldataandtheoccurrenceof

Leishmaniaspp.antibodieswereanalyzedbychi-square(␹2)or Fischer’sexacttest,adopting5%asthelevelofsignificance.All theanalyseswereperformedbyusingBioEstat5.3software Fromthe 204samplestested,67.15%(n=137)turnedout positive,57.4%(n=58)fromruraldogsand82.9%(n=79)from urbandogs(p<0.05).Anti-Leishmania chagasiantibodieswere detectedinallruralpropertiesandurbanneighborhoodsof thestudy.Seropositivityratevariedfrom28.6to70%inrural area and from 33 to 90% inurban area Theonlyvariable significantly associated with seropositivity was location of theneighborhoodintheurbanarea(p<0.05).Dogslivingin Tiúba,SetorPalmas,TeresaHilário,Senador,AraguaínaSul, andSãoJoãohadsignificantlyhigherchancetobeseropositive

toL chagasi inrelationtodogs livinginVilaCouto Magal-hãesandBarros(p<0.05).Dogslivinginenvironmentswith daily,weekly,ornocleaningwasnotariskfactorforbeing seropositive(p>0.05).Likewise,theurbananimalsremaining outdoormostofthedaywasnotariskfactor(p>0.05).Outdoor ruraldogshadahigherseropositivityrate(60.5%),compared

toindoorruralanimals(50%),butthisdifferencewasnot sig-nificant(p=0.41).Indoorurbandogshadaseropositiverate (78.4%)similartooutdoorurbandogs(73.5%).Age(≤6months;

>6monthsand≤2years;>2to≤5years;>5years),gender,and breed(pureormongrel)werenotassociatedtopositiveresults Thehigh rateofpositivityforCVL foundinthe present study, bothinrural (57.4%) and urbanarea (82.9%), under-scoresthefactthatalthoughthediseasemaintainsitsrural characteristics, nowadays its urbanization can be widely noticed.Inaddition,resultssuggestthatdogslivinginurban areasaremoreexposedtovectorsthanthoselivinginrural areasand mightbeassociatedtoeco-environmental condi-tions.Thehigherpositivityratefoundintheneighborhoods

oftheurbanareaareprobablyrelatedtopoormaintenance

ofthehouses,lowsocioeconomicconditions,andpresence

of trees and other vegetation nearby, as it was regularly observed

Pleasecitethisarticleinpressas:GuimarãesA,etal.SerosurveyforcaninevisceralleishmaniasisinruralandurbanareasoftheBrazilian LegalAmazon.BrazJInfectDis.2016.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bjid.2016.10.013

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BJID-682; No.ofPages2

Thelackofstatisticalassociationofpositiveresultsand

age,sex,andbreedareinaccordancewithpreviousreports.5

Althoughcleaningfrequencywasnotsignificant,itisknown

thataccumulationoforganicmatteraswellasdomesticwaste

deservesspecialattentioninordertoavoidtheproliferation

ofphlebotominesthatneedorganicmattertocompletetheir

lifecycle.5Similarly,outdoororindoorbreedingdidnotshow

statisticalassociation,butnonethelessshouldbeconsidered

onceoutdoorenvironmentpermitshighercontactwithvector

ecologicalniche

InBrazil,VLisconsideredanendemicdisease,though

out-breaksoccurmoreorlessoftenduetopoorimmuneresponse

ofhostsandtoanecoepidemiologicalscenariothatfavorsthe

proliferationofinfectedvector populations.5 Theresultsof

the presentstudy highlight theimportance ofCVLin both

ruralandurbanareasofTocantinsandindicatetheneedfor

effectiveVLsurveillanceandcontrolmeasuresintheregion

Theauthorsdeclarenoconflictsofinterest

Acknowledgements

Theauthorsgratefullyacknowledgethescholarshipsgranted

byCNPq (National Councilfor Scientificand Technological

Development).Wealsothankthelaboratorysupportoffered

byLucéliaA.Santos,LeandroL.Nepomuceno,andLarissaM.B

Moraes

r e f e r e n c e s

1.HarhayMO,OlliaroPL,CostaDL,CostaCH.Urbanparasitology:

visceralleishmaniasisinBrazil.TrendsParasitol.2011;27:403–9

2.BanethG,ArochI.Canineleishmaniasis:adiagnosticand

clinicalchallenge.VetJ.2008;175:14–5

3.DATASUS/D.2.5Taxadeincidênciadaleishmaniose visceral/TaxadeincidênciaporUnidadedaFederac¸ão/Unidade

daFederac¸ão:Tocantins/Período:2012/Availablefrom: http://tabnet.datasus.gov.br/cgi/tabcgi.exe?idb2012/d0205.def Accessed:Aug.02,2016

4.CamargoME.Introduc¸ãoàstécnicasdeImunofluorescência RevBrasPatolClín.1974;10:143–69

5.BritoFG,LangoniH,SilvaRC,RotondanoTEF,MeloMA,PazGS CaninevisceralleishmaniasisintheNortheastRegionof Brazil.JVenomAnimToxinsInclTropDis.2016;22:15

AndresaGuimarãesa,JulianaMacedoRaimundoa, HelciléiaDiasSantosb,RosangelaZacariasMachadoc, CristianeDivanBaldania , ∗

aUniversidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Instituto

de Veterinária, Departamento de Medicina e Cirurgia Veterinária, Seropédica, RJ, Brazil

bUniversidade Federal do Tocantins (UFT), Escola de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Araguaína, TO, Brazil

cUniversidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Departamento de Patologia Veterinária, Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil

∗Corresponding author.

E-mailaddress:crisbaldani@gmail.com(C.D.Baldani) Received4October2016

Accepted5October2016 1413-8670/

©2016SociedadeBrasileiradeInfectologia.Publishedby ElsevierEditoraLtda.Thisisanopenaccessarticleunderthe

CCBY-NC-NDlicense(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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