Leishmania chagasi and Trypanosoma cruzi research in wild animals from wild fauna preservation center from Ilha Solteira, São Paulo State

• Grant number: 09/09129-0
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: October 01, 2009 - September 30, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal researcher: Simone Baldini Lucheis
• Grantee: Simone Baldini Lucheis
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FMB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Free life wild animals as such as under captivity, may be reservoirs and carriers of zoonosis, as visceral and cutaneous leishmaniases and Chagas'disease. The leishmaniases are parasitic diseases widespread in the Old and New World with great epidemiological diversity. They are caused by about 20 species of Leishmania, protozoa transmitted by the bite of female sand flies. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania chagasi is a severe, often fatal, disease common in the Mediterranean region and in Latin America. Dogs are the main reservoir, but wild animals also contain the parasite, being important reservoirs too. American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) is a protozoan infection caused by the flagellate Trypanosoma cruzi, widespread in the American Continent chiefly among small wild mammals (enzootic sylvatic cycle). Human Chagas disease constitutes a more recent situation, in which bio-ecological and socioeconomic factors leave rural poor populations of South and Central America in contact with the sylvatic cycle, where the parasite is transmitted by natural vectors of the infection. From the Public Health standpoint, the importance of Chagas disease remains correlated to this so-called "domestic" cycle, not only because millions of human beings are involved but also because all the available control measures are directed against it. Due to the importance of both zoonosis to the public health, we proposed to determine the importance of wild animals, under captivity such as in free life, from Wild Fauna Preservation Center - CESP from Ilha Solteira , Sao Paulo state, Brazil, in the epidemiologic cycle of leishmaniasis and Chagas disease, with specific diagnostic investigation using blood culture from 33 wild animals under captivity, and in free live wild animals, using Liver Infusion Tryptose (LIT) medium, C-ELISA sorological method and Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for Leishmania chagasi and Trypanosoma cruzi. (AU)