Infectiousness in a Cohort of Brazilian Dogs: Why Culling Fails to Control Visceral Leishmaniasis in Areas of High Transmission

The elimination of seropositive dogs in Brazil has been used to control zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis but with little success. To elucidate the reasons for this, the infectiousness of 50 sentinel dogs exposed to natural Leishmania chagasi infection was assessed through time by xenodiagnosis with t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 2002-11, Vol.186 (9), p.1314-1320
Main Authors: Courtenay, Orin, Quinnell, Rupert J., Garcez, Lourdes M., Shaw, Jeffrey J., Dye, Christopher
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antigens, Protozoan - blood
Antigens, Protozoan - immunology
Biological and medical sciences
Brazil - epidemiology
Canines
Culling
Dog Diseases - immunology
Dog Diseases - parasitology
Dog Diseases - prevention & control
Dogs
Female
Human protozoal diseases
Humans
Immunoglobulin G - blood
Infections
Infectious diseases
Insect Vectors
Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - immunology
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - prevention & control
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - transmission
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - veterinary
Leshmaniasis
Lymphocyte Activation
Major Articles
Male
Medical sciences
Parasitic diseases
Parasitology
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Protozoal diseases
Psychodidae - parasitology
Serology
Time Factors
Visceral leishmaniasis
Xenodiagnosis
Zoonoses
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The elimination of seropositive dogs in Brazil has been used to control zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis but with little success. To elucidate the reasons for this, the infectiousness of 50 sentinel dogs exposed to natural Leishmania chagasi infection was assessed through time by xenodiagnosis with the sandfly vector, Lutzomyia longipalpis Eighteen (43%) of 42 infected dogs became infectious after a median of 333 days in the field (105 days after seroconversion). Seven highly infectious dogs (17%) accounted for >80% of sandfly infections. There were positive correlations between infectiousness and anti-Leishmania immunoglobulin G, parasite detection by polymerase chain reaction, and clinical disease (logistic regression, r2=0.08–0.18). The sensitivity of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect currently infectious dogs was high (96%) but lower in the latent period (
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1086/344312