Avaliação epidemiológica da ocorrência de leishmaniose visceral em cães atendidos no Hospital Veterinário Francisco Edilberto Uchoa Lopes, 2021

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a complex disease with an appearance of clinical manifestations, containing cutaneous leishmaniasis, mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis being the last studied in this work. The objective of this study was to carry out an epidemiological assessment of the occurrence of visceral leishmaniasis in dogs treated at the Francisco Edilberto Uchoa Lopes Veterinary Hospital, from January 2021 to December 2021. Therefore, an observational, descriptive study was carried out with a quantitative approach to identify the prevalence of cases of visceral leishmaniasis in dogs treated at the Veterinary Hospital, located in the city of Sao Luis - MA. A total of 7,758 medical records of dogs treated at the hospital were observed and analyzed in the year 2021, where 450 positive cases of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) were found, with the following profile: no defined race (57.3%), males (54 .0%), from 1 to 5 years old (47.3%), from the city of Sao Luis (77.4%). All cases had a laboratory diagnosis. Most dogs were asymptomatic (55.1%) and among those that were symptomatic, the main clinical signs were skin lesions, alopecia, excessive weight loss and itching. It is concluded that the number of CVL among dogs treated at the University Veterinary Hospital “Francisco Edilberto Uchoa Lopes” (HVU-UEMA), in 2021, was 5.8% (450/7,758), and represented 62.94 % (450/715) of the animals that presented symptoms compatible with the disease, so it is important that the Veterinarians who work in the referred hospital are attentive during the anamnesis for dogs with skin lesions, alopecia and excessive weight loss, as it can be indicative ofLVC.