Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis and Canine Trypanosomiasis: A prospective seroepidemiological study

• Grant number: 22/13115-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2023
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Helio Langoni
• Grantee: Amanda Negri Marins
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL) is an anthropozoonosis widely distributed worldwide with great impact on public health, and dogs are considered important reservoirs and sentinel animals for the disease. The etiological agent is the protozoan Leishmania chagasi, which infects dogs, among other animals, and humans, from the bite of the female sand fly, Lutzomyia longipalpis. Canine trypanosomiasis, known as Chagas disease (CD), is also a zoonotic disease caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, affecting susceptible animals and humans through contact of triatomine feces with skin wounds or from contaminated food. In this sense, dogs are considered the main reservoirs of the domestic cycle. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the seroprevalence of these diseases in serological samples of street dogs in the city of Foz do Iguaçu - PR, collected by the local CCZ team, by indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFA). The risk factors will be evaluated according to epidemiological variables such as age, sex, breed, clinical signs and general origin of the animal. The results regarding seroprevalence and antibody titers obtained for both will be statistically analyzed by means of descriptive statistics based on frequencies, through histograms and graphs evaluating the distributions of the variables age, sex and clinical signs, according to the result of the titration for Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL) and Chagas disease.