Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Leishmania infection found in 21% of dogs in northeastern Portugal
By Sousa, Susana et al.·Published in Acta tropica·2011·Parasite Disease Group·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Seroepidemiological survey of Leishmania infantum infection in dogs from northeastern Portugal.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
In northeastern Portugal, a survey found that about 21% of dogs tested positive for Leishmania infantum, the parasite that causes canine leishmaniasis. The study looked at 654 dogs and found that adult dogs were more likely to be infected than juveniles, and sick dogs had a higher infection rate compared to healthy ones. Dogs that were not vaccinated and those living in urban areas also showed higher rates of infection. The researchers identified several risk factors, including the dog's health status and previous infection with Toxoplasma.
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Abstract
Northeastern Portugal is a region where canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is endemic. In this study, a sero-epidemiological survey was conducted in 654 dogs from that geographical area. Serum samples were evaluated by the direct agglutination test (DAT) and also by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using five different defined antigens. Seroprevalence of infection was 21.3% based on the assumption that seropositive animals were positive for at least three tests. A high degree of agreement was found between DAT and LAM-ELISA (89%; kappa value [κ] = 0.67). A statistically significant difference (p<0.05) of seropositivity was found between adult (23.4%) and juvenile dogs (12.2%), apparently healthy (14.8%) and sick dogs (40.2%), vaccinated (19.7%) and non-vaccinated (41.2%) animals, seropositive (26.9%) and seronegative (18.0%) for Toxoplasma gondii, living in rural (18.5%) or urban (32.6%) areas, and between animals living exclusively outdoors (18.2%) and those living in a mixed habitat (27.5%). Risk factors for canine Leishmania infection, as defined by multiple logistic regression analysis, were of clinical status (odds ratio [OR] = 3.1) and Toxoplasma infection (OR = 1.5).
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21741348/