Review of animal leishmaniosis in Jordan: An alarming discovery with implications for public health and animal welfare.

Abstract

Leishmaniosis is an endemic parasitic infection in Jordan and the Middle East. Despite the endemicity of leishmaniosis in Jordan and frequently reported humancases, no singleclinical case has been documented in animals throughout the country. This report documents the first two animal Leishmania cases in two different animal species with a current literature review. Cutaneous leishmaniosis was diagnosed in an adult horse that presented with multiple variably sized skin nodules, some of which ulcerated. Visceral leishmaniosis was diagnosed in a stray dog. Cytological, histopathological, and molecular findings confirmed the clinical diagnosis of leishmaniosis. Leishmania amastigotes were reliably detected both intracellularly and extracellularly in macrophages in both animals confirming active infection. The etiology of cutaneous lesions in the horse was Leishmania tropica (L. tropica) while Leishmania infantum (L. infantum) was responsible for the visceral leishmaniosis in the dog case. These results showed that two different species of Leishmania parasites in separate hosts could exist with different tissue tropisms that could accentuate the zoonotic risk and shed some light on the importance of accurate and timely diagnosis.