title: Sero-epidemiological study of canine Leishmania spp. infection in the municipality of Alijó (Alto Douro, Portugal).
abstract: Visceral leishmaniosis caused by Leishmania infantum is a zoonotic disease in the Mediterranean basin. We report an epidemiological survey carried out in dogs from the municipality of Alijó in the endemic region of Alto Douro (north Portugal). Performance of the direct agglutination test (DAT) was assessed in 205 matching samples of blood collected on filter paper and serum. A high degree of agreement (97.6%; k = 0.83) was found between the results obtained from both types of samples. DAT was then used to test more blood on filter paper (B-FP) samples from other dogs of the same municipality. The detected sero-prevalence was 18.7% (288/1540), with values ranging from 0.0 to 81.1% in each of the 19 parishes of Alijó. Three distinct geographical zones of mean sero-prevalence could be defined: northwestern (2.5%), intermediate (11.4%) and southern (49.9%). No statistically significant difference was observed between male (19.1%) and female (17.8%) sero-prevalences (P = 0.560). Dogs of 9-11 years of age showed the highest sero-prevalence (28.4%), but all the other age-intervals (0-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 12-17 years) presented values (15.0-22.3%) not significantly different from the mean of the whole study population. Risk factors for canine Leishmania infection were age and geographical zone. Only 5.9% of the sero-positive animals had clinical signs of canine leishmaniosis and the overall prevalence of disease was 1.1%. This study validates the use of B-FP samples and confirms DAT as a simple and sensitive serological test to evaluate the level of canine Leishmania infection in areas of high sero-prevalence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene and Animal Health, CECAV, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, 5001-911 Vila Real, Portugal. lcardoso@utad.pt
authors.forename: Luís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Helder
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Gerard J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Schoone
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carreta
authors.forename: Eugénio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Varejão
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van Benthem
authors.forename: M Odete
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Afonso
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alves-Pires
authors.forename: Saul J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Semião-Santos
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Henk D F H
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Schallig
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000662:veterinary; D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood; D002980:Climate; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D018314:Leishmania infantum / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D012621:Seasons; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan