Molecular evaluation of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis in road-killed wild animals in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil

• Grant number: 15/04187-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Virgínia Bodelão Richini Pereira
• Grantee: Francielle Ramalho Rocha
• Host Institution: Instituto Adolfo Lutz (IAL). Coordenadoria de Controle de Doenças (CCD). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The interaction of humans and domestic animals with wild animals is increasing due to population growth. Thus, there is an increase in zoonoses. Fungi are organisms that inhabit various substrates when pathogens are able to invade a healthy tissue, multiply and cause tissue damage in an immunocompetent host. Paracoccidioides spp. is the etiological agente of paracoccidioidomycosis, the most important systemic mycosis in Latin America. Many wild animals of various species have been identified as important in the adaptive evolutionary process of some species of pathogenic fungi. Studies involving wild animals are increasingly restrictive and road-killed wild animals fulfill the need of searching for alternatives to the use of animals in research. The present work aimed, by using molecular tools, to describe the occurrence of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis in samples of road-killed animals from the Santa Catarina, by PCR and Nested-PCR and identify and map areas of risk to human infection.