Emerging zoonoses in Brazil-Argentina border: importance of wild carnivores as sentinels for filariases and visceral leishmaniasis

• Grant number: 16/15589-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: June 01, 2017 - May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Estevam Guilherme Lux Hoppe
• Grantee: Estevam Guilherme Lux Hoppe
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Andressa de Souza Pollo ; Antonio Sergio Ferraudo ; Juliana Notarnicola ; Luis Antonio Mathias ; Marcos Rogério André ; Marina Xavier da Silva ; Sebastian Andres Costa

Abstract

The global population growth, associated with the environmental fragmentation and degradation,and the increasing proximity between human communities, livestock and wildlife lead to destabilization of trophic chains and consequent rise of emerging diseases. More than 75% of emerging zoonotic pathogens of humans has originated in wild animals. Carnivores have vital importance to the integrity and stability of their ecosystems, especially because they act controlling the population of species in lower levels of the trophic chain. In the Iguaçu National Park, the coatis and graxains are common species of generalist and opportunistic carnivores, with wide distribution in the territory of the park. As generalists, they benefit from human influence, approaching human populations and becoming vulnerable to domestic animal pathogens, and can adduce pathogens to livestock and humans. Recently we diagnosed the presence of filarids with zoonotic potential in the park area, as well as confirmation of autochthonous cases of canine visceral leishmaniasis in domestic dogs in this region. Thus, because of the importance to the public health as well a complementary tool in the conservation of local wildlife, this research aims to study filarioses and Leishmania chagasi in generalist carnivores in Parna Iguaçu, to try understand the host-parasite relationship and the ecological processes that may favor the transmission of these agents among wild populations, domestic and humans. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MORAES, M. F. D.; DA SILVA, M. X.; TEBALDI, J. H.; HOPPE, E. G. LUX. Parasitological assessment of wild ring-tailed coatis (Nasua nasua) from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY-PARASITES AND WILDLIFE, v. 9, p. 154-158, AUG 2019. (14/08180-0, 16/14886-9, 16/15589-8)