Estudo epidemiológico, espacial, molecular e sorológico de Leishmania infantum em cães domésticos no município de Belágua, cerrado maranhense

Abstract

Leishmaniosis is a great public health. The disease develops in a complex dynamics that involves environmental, biological and ecological factors that allow the interaction between the parasite, the vector and the host, besides socio economic factor. The objective was to perform na epidemiological, spacial, molecular and serologial study of Leishmania infantum in domestic dogs in the municipality of Belágua, located in Maranhão state. A total of 205 blood samples were collected, questionnaires were applied to the owners in order to obtain epidemiological data and risk factors of this zoonosis and geographic coordinates of the site of samples collection to make a risk map of the disease. For serological diagnosis the samples were submitted to the Indirect Imunifluorescence Test (IFAT), and DNA was extracted to perform the Polimerase Chain Recation (PCR) for molecular investigation. From the total of samples collected 122 (59.51%) were seropositives for Leishmania infantum by IFAT, with titer varying from 80 to 1.280. One dog was positive for IFAT and PCR. In the clinical evaluation it was observed that from the seropositives dogs, 112 (91.80%) were symptomatic e 10 (5.46%) were asymptomatic. In the special analysis, the Kernel density estimator allowed to determine the local major risk for the disease occurrence being the areas of greater concentration of cases were in the neighborhoods of greater number of precarious houses and with lack of basic sanitation. The results demonstrated an association statistically significant ((p<0.05) for the variable presence of organic matter in the environment. This is the first report of L. infantum in dogs in the municipality of Belágua and it is important since it could be an increasing risk for human infection.