title: Domestic dog health worsens with socio-economic deprivation of their home communities.
abstract: Dogs play an important role in infectious disease transmission as reservoir hosts of many zoonotic and wildlife pathogens. Nevertheless, unlike wildlife species involved in the life cycle of pathogens, whose health status might be a direct reflection of their fitness and competitive abilities, dog health condition could be sensitive to socio-economic factors impacting the well-being of their owners. Here, we compare several dog health indicators in three rural communities of Panama with different degrees of socio-economic deprivation. From a total of 78 individuals, we collected blood and fecal samples, and assessed their body condition. With the blood samples, we performed routine hematologic evaluation (complete blood counts) and measured cytokine levels (Interferon-γ and Interleukin-10) through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. With the fecal samples we diagnosed helminthiases. Dogs were also serologically tested for exposure to Trypanosoma cruzi and canine distemper virus, and molecular tests were done to assess T. cruzi infection status. We found significant differences between dog health measurements, pathogen prevalence, parasite richness, and economic status of the human communities where the dogs lived. We found dogs that were less healthy, more likely to be infected with zoonotic pathogens, and more likely to be seropositive to canine distemper virus in the communities with lower economic status. This study concludes that isolated communities of lower economic status in Panama may have less healthy dogs that could become major reservoirs in the transmission of diseases to humans and sympatric wildlife.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Panama City, Panama.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Calzada
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Panama City, Panama.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saldaña
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Panama City, Panama.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Santamaria
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Panama City, Panama.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pineda
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Panama City, Panama.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tropical Medicine (NEKKEN), Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan.
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Chaves
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Garner
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. Electronic address: gottdenk@uga.edu.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gottdenker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004216:Distemper / Q000453:epidemiology; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine / Q000276:immunology; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004285:Dogs; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006374:Helminthiasis, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010176:Panama / Q000453:epidemiology; D057805:Pets / Q000502:physiology*; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
keywords: Domestic dog; Health assessment; Panama; Poverty-disease; Wildlife diseases; Zoonotic diseases