Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Tracking canine leishmaniosis infection using noninvasive tests
By Hernández, Leticia et al.·Published in Veterinary parasitology·2015·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Course of experimental infection of canine leishmaniosis: follow-up and utility of noninvasive diagnostic techniques.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of eight dogs was intentionally infected with Leishmania infantum, the parasite that causes canine leishmaniosis, to study how the disease progresses and how to diagnose it. Over a year, the dogs showed signs of infection, including changes in blood tests and immune responses. The researchers found that bone marrow samples were the most effective for detecting the parasite, while new non-invasive methods using vulvar swabs were also promising. By the end of the study, all dogs had active infections, and the findings suggest that combining traditional blood tests with new swab techniques could help diagnose the disease earlier.
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Abstract
This study compares the utility of a molecular diagnosis of experimental CanL on non-invasive samples (urine, conjunctival (CS), oral (OS) and vulvar (VS) swabs) with that of traditional invasive techniques during the course of infection. Eight dogs were experimen-tally infected with Leishmania infantum and followed monthly for 12 months to assess clinical, clinicopathological, immunological and parasitological variables. Active infection was produced in 100% of the dogs. The animals showed positive bone marrow (BM) cytologies and cultures, clinical signs, clinicopathological abnormalities and a high specific humoral immune response. The infection was detected at 90 days post-infection (p.i.) by real-time quantitative PCR (rtQ-PCR) on BM in all dogs and in blood in 2 dogs, while anti-L. infantum antibody seroconversion occurred between Days 120 and 180 days p.i. The tissue with the highest L. infantum kDNA load, as detected by rtQ-PCR, was BM (range 381.5–70,000 parasites/ml at the study end), this sample type showing greater sensitivity than peripheral blood (PB). The vulvar swabs used here for the first time to quantify para-site loads in dogs revealed a greater load than oral and conjunctival swabs at one year p.i. Urine samples showed the lowest concentrations of L. infantum DNA (maximum: 8.57 par-asites/ml). Our results suggest that for the early detection of infection, adding to serology a test such as rtQ-PCR on OS or VS improves sensitivity and specificity.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25692190/