Molecular Detection of Tick-Borne Pathogens in Dogs from Indigenous Communities, Amazon, Brazil.

Abstract

There are few reports of tick-borne pathogens infecting dogs living in indigenous communities of Brazil. Herein, we aimed to molecularly detect vector-borne pathogens in dogs from two indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon.We surveyed 327 dogs raised in Amazon region at 2 distinct indigenous ethnicities for the molecular detection of tick-borne pathogens (114 from Tapirapé and 213 from Karajá indigenous ethnicity). Whole blood samples were subjected to PCR and sequencing for,, and. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to investigate the factors affecting the pathogen infection patterns in dogs.Among the 327 blood samples, 40 were positive for(12.2%), 2 for(0.61%), and 204 were positive for(66.5%). Binary Logistic Regression showed association betweeninfection and ethnicity ( = 0.010) and tick attachment ( = 0.041). Karajá dogs were 3.4 times (95% CI 1.3-8.5) more likely to be positive forthan Tapirapé dogs. Dogs with ticks were 2.5 times more likely (95% CI 1.0-7.6) to be positive forthan dogs without ticks.Our survey expands the knowledge regarding the presence of vector-borne pathogens in dogs from indigenous communities in the Amazon region.