Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Wildlife Hosts of Leishmania Infantum in a Re-Emerging Focus of Human Leishmaniasis, in Emilia-Romagna, Northeast Italy

Roberta Taddei
,
Arianna Bregoli
,
Giorgio Galletti
ORCID logo ,
Elena Carra
ORCID logo ,
Laura Fiorentini
,
Maria Cristina Fontana
,
Matteo Frasnelli
,
Carmela Musto
ORCID logo ,
Giovanni Pupillo
,
Alessandro Reggiani
ORCID logo ,
Annalisa Santi
ORCID logo ,
Arianna Rossi
,
Marco Tamba
ORCID logo ,
Mattia Calzolari
ORCID logo ,
Gianluca Rugna
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 26 October 2022 / Approved: 27 October 2022 / Online: 27 October 2022 (02:10:58 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Taddei, R.; Bregoli, A.; Galletti, G.; Carra, E.; Fiorentini, L.; Fontana, M.C.; Frasnelli, M.; Musto, C.; Pupillo, G.; Reggiani, A.; Santi, A.; Rossi, A.; Tamba, M.; Calzolari, M.; Rugna, G. Wildlife Hosts of Leishmania infantum in a Re-Emerging Focus of Human Leishmaniasis, in Emilia-Romagna, Northeast Italy. Pathogens 2022, 11, 1308. Taddei, R.; Bregoli, A.; Galletti, G.; Carra, E.; Fiorentini, L.; Fontana, M.C.; Frasnelli, M.; Musto, C.; Pupillo, G.; Reggiani, A.; Santi, A.; Rossi, A.; Tamba, M.; Calzolari, M.; Rugna, G. Wildlife Hosts of Leishmania infantum in a Re-Emerging Focus of Human Leishmaniasis, in Emilia-Romagna, Northeast Italy. Pathogens 2022, 11, 1308.

Abstract

In the last decade, an upsurge of human leishmaniasis has been reported in the Emilia-Romagna region, Northeast Italy. Epidemiologic data raised doubts about the role of dogs as the main reservoirs for Leishmania infantum. In the present study, a total of 1,077 wild animals were screened for L. infantum DNA in earlobe and spleen samples from 2019 to 2022. The lymph nodes were tested only in the 23 animals already positive in the earlobe and/or spleen. A total of 71 (6.6%) animals resulted positive in at least one of the sampled tissues, including 3/18 (16.7%) wolves, 6/39 (15.4%) European hares, 38/309 (12.3%) roe deer, 1/11 (9.1%) red deer, 8 (4.9%) wild boars, 13/319 (4.1%) red foxes, 1/54 (1.9%) porcupine, and 1/59 (1.7%) European badger. Most of the infected animals (62/71) tested positive only in the earlobe tissue, just 4 animals (2 roe deer and 2 wild boars) tested positive only in the spleen, and 5 animals (3 roe deer and 2 red foxes) resulted positive for both tissues. L. infantum DNA was detected in the lymph nodes of 6/23 ani-mals. L. infantum detection occurred in all seasons associated with low real-time PCR Ct values. Further research is needed in order to clarify the role of wildlife in the re-emerging focus of leishmaniasis in Northeast Italy.

Keywords

Leishmania infantum; reservoir; wildlife; artiodactyls; roe deer; European hare; red fox; wild boar

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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