Parasitemia and its daily variation in canine leishmaniasis
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PROTOZOOLOGY - SHORT COMMUNICATION
Parasitemia and its daily variation in canine leishmaniasis Simona Di Pietro 1 & Chiara Crinò 1 & Annastella Falcone 1 & Rosalia Crupi 1 & Francesco Francaviglia 2 & Fabrizio Vitale 3 & Elisabetta Giudice 1 Received: 11 September 2019 / Accepted: 5 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate, through qPCR, the prevalence of parasitemia in sick kennel dogs naturally infected by canine leishmaniasis. An evaluation of daily changes of the parasitic load in peripheral blood was also performed. A comprehensive clinical examination and the collection of several samples (blood, lymph node, skin, and conjunctiva) were performed in 140 dogs living in an endemic area. Among these, only the dogs with clinically evident leishmaniasis were enrolled (39/140; 27.9%). Twelve (30.8%) out of 39 showed parasitemia, with a low load (median: 4 Leishmania/ml) despite a high lymph node parasite load (median: 4000 Leishmania/ml) and high IFAT titers (≥ 1:640). Seven sick dogs were sampled every 4 h for 6 times during a 24-h period, in order to obtain light- and dark-span samples. Only one (14.3%) out of the seven serial sampled dogs showed Leishmania DNA in the peripheral blood in two samples (2/42; 4.8%). Surprisingly, Leishmania DNA was also detected in the peripheral blood of asymptomatic dogs, negative to both serology and PCR performed on samples other than blood (6/101; 5.9%). The present study confirms that in canine leishmaniasis parasitemia is uncommon and even transitory. Even if recommended, microscopic examination is confirmed as a low sensitivity method with a lower diagnostic utility in canine leishmaniasis than qPCR. Moreover, circulating Leishmania DNA can be found even in healthy dogs. This finding is important in clinical practice because in endemic areas it suggests a transfusion risk and a possible transmission to the vector. Keywords Amastigote and promastigote forms . Daily variation of parasitemia . Dog . Leishmania infantum . qPCR
Introduction Canine leishmaniasis (CanL), caused by Leishmania infantum, is an important zoonotic vector-borne disease, endemic in many countries all over the world (Alvar et al. 2012). In the past 10 years, CanL is of increasing concern in many regions of the Mediterranean basin, including Italy, since it spreads in previously non-endemic areas in relationship to the sandfly vectors (Mendoza-Roldan et al. 2020). Leishmania spp. are digenetic parasites, with a life cycle involving two Section Editor: Domenico Otranto * Simona Di Pietro [email protected] 1
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Messina, Polo Universitario dell’Annunziata, 98168 Messina, Italy
2
Local Animal Health Veterinarian, ASP (Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale) Palermo, Palermo, Italy
3
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sicilia “A. Mirri”, Via Rocco Dicillo 9, 90139 Palermo, Italy
hosts, a vertebrate, and the invertebrate host-sandfly (Phleobotomus spp. and Lutzomyia spp.). During b
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