Afonso, P.; Coelho, A.C.; Quintas, H.; Cardoso, L. Leishmania Seroprevalence in Dogs: Comparing Shelter and Domestic Communities. Animals 2023, 13, 2352, doi:10.3390/ani13142352.
Afonso, P.; Coelho, A.C.; Quintas, H.; Cardoso, L. Leishmania Seroprevalence in Dogs: Comparing Shelter and Domestic Communities. Animals 2023, 13, 2352, doi:10.3390/ani13142352.
Afonso, P.; Coelho, A.C.; Quintas, H.; Cardoso, L. Leishmania Seroprevalence in Dogs: Comparing Shelter and Domestic Communities. Animals 2023, 13, 2352, doi:10.3390/ani13142352.
Afonso, P.; Coelho, A.C.; Quintas, H.; Cardoso, L. Leishmania Seroprevalence in Dogs: Comparing Shelter and Domestic Communities. Animals 2023, 13, 2352, doi:10.3390/ani13142352.
Abstract
Canine leishmaniosis (CanL) is a chronic, systemic and often severe disease. The main causative agent of CanL is a protozoan parasite, Leishmania infantum, with phlebotomine sand flies acting as vectors. In Europe and other continents, L. infantum is also responsible for leishmaniosis in other animals, such as cats, horses and humans. In Portugal, animal and human leishmanioses are endemic, and high prevalence levels of infection and disease have been reported in dogs. There is a prejudice against stray animals and also those housed in shelters, assuming they have higher levels of infection with vector-borne pathogens, including L. infantum, when compared to domestic animals. In north-eastern Portugal, serum samples were obtained from March to May 2022 in three shelters (n = 179) and 13 veterinary clinics (n = 164), resulting in 343 dogs being analysed for antibodies to Leishmania spp. by the direct agglutination test (DAT). The overall seroprevalence was 9.9%, with 15.2% seroprevalence in domestic dogs and 5.0% in the shelter ones (p = 0.003). The fact that shelter dogs had a lower seroprevalence could be explained by more regular veterinary care provided in shelters regarding preventive measures, including insecticides with an antifeeding effect, in comparison with domestic dogs.
Keywords
dog; domestic; leishmaniosis; Portugal; shelter
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Public Health and Health Services
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.
