Investigação sorológica de Leishmania spp. em Cerdocyon thous e Leopardus pardalis no pantanal sul mato-grossense, Brasil

Abstract

Leishmaniasis are a group of zoonoses that affect domestic, wild and human mammals that are considered to be of great importance for public health as they are emerging and reemerging in 98 countries. As neglected diseases, there are still gaps in the knowledge of their epidemiology, especially regarding the wild transmission cycles. Among mammals, carnivorans stands out due to their ecological traits, with reports of several species of this order acting as ​Leishmania spp hosts and/or potential reservoirs. Still, few studies report Leishmania spp. infection in wild cats, such as the ocelots (Leopardus pardalis ​ ); up now, there is only one description of a positive individual ofth is species in the wild. In the present study, we evaluated the seroprevalence of anti-​Leishmania spp. Antibodies using Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Test (IFAT) in free-living ocelots and crab-eating foxes (​Cerdocyon thous ​ ) in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Additionally, we evaluated the presence of anti-​Trypanosoma ​cruzi and anti-​Trypanosoma evansi antibodies to rule out possible cross reactions with other endemic trypanosomatids in the area. We found a 69.2% seroprevalence (n = 13) in ocelots, while none of the crab-eating foxes tested positive (n = 12). Despite sharing the same area, the negativity of the wild canids’ samples might indicate that carnivoran species could have different probabilities of being exposed to the local transmission cycles according to their ecological traits, as well as the influence of biotic and abiotic factors. Compared with the literature on​Leishmania spp. in felines, to the bestofour knowledge, this is the highest seroprevalence ever described for both wild and domestic felids. There is still much to debate about the role of felines in the epidemiology of leishmaniasis; yet, more than a punctual finding, our results indicate that ocelots may participate in the​ Leishmania spp. transmission cycles and open space for discussion about the roles as hosts and potential reservoirs of the parasite in the wild of this species that has the highest distribution and highest densities among neotropical felids.