Research of infectious agents of zoonotic character in chiropterans

• Grant number: 22/07124-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Helio Langoni
• Grantee: Danilo Alves de França
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Emerging diseases are a concern for all those involved in public health, ecology, and population dynamics. The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic reinforces the importance of investigating the possible consequences resulting from the interaction between humans and animals. In this regard, the demographic expansion that has occurred in recent decades, affecting the constitution of biomes, has allowed greater exchange with wild species, which harbor a multitude of pathogens, many zoonotic, that can lead to severe diseases for humans. Bats, important pollinators, harbor pathogens without often manifesting clinical signs due to the adaptations of their immune systems throughout evolution, but which for humans can be deadly. Leptospirosis, leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis, and Q fever are emerging diseases present in large urban centers, affecting especially populations living in places with poor infrastructure, and where several species of bats, mainly non-hematophagous, live and circulate, and that should be investigated to generate data that can strengthen measures for the protection of vulnerable populations and workers exposed to occupational risk factors. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate by molecular method the presence of Leptospira spp., Leishmania spp., Toxoplasma gondii and Coxiella burnetii in bats referred by the Occupational Surveillance of the city of Botucatu-SP to the Zoonosis Diagnostic Service of FMVZ, UNESP- Botucatu. (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)

DE FRANCA, DANILO ALVES; DA SILVA, FILIPE PEREIRA; ZANINI, DAYANE DA SILVA; IGLESIAS, LORENA; PORTILLO, LAURA; CORTEZ, HERMINIA; BIONDO, ALEXANDER WELKER; DURE, ANA IRIS DE LIMA; SILVA, MARCOS VINICIUS FERREIRA; MIRET, JORGE; et al. Coxiella burnetii seroprevalence in sheep herd from Paraguay: First evidence of bacterial circulation in the country. ONE HEALTH, v. 18, p. 6-pg., 2023-12-15. (22/07124-6)

DE FRANCA, DANILO ALVES; KMETIUK, LOUISE BACH; PANAZZOLO, GIOVANNI AUGUSTO KALEMPA; DOMINGUES, ORLEI JOSE; DA SILVA, FILIPE PEREIRA; BIONDO, LEANDRO MENEGUELLI; MIONI, MATEUS DE SOUZA RIBEIRO; POSSEBON, FABIO SOSSAI; DURE, ANA IRIS DE LIMA; SILVA, MARCOS VINICIUS FERREIRA; et al. Serosurvey of Coxiella burnetii in Descendants of Former Black Slaves (Quilombola Communities) of Southern Brazil. MICROORGANISMS, v. 12, n. 1, p. 11-pg., 2024-01-01. (22/07124-6)

DE FRANCA, DANILO ALVES; MENOZZI, BENEDITO DONIZETE; LANGONI, HELIO. Toxoplasma gondii in urban and rural bats from Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Acta Tropica, v. 263, p. 6-pg., 2025-03-01. (22/10976-4, 22/07124-6)