First Report of an Urban Case of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis in the Municipality of Cali, Colombia

American visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a vector-borne disease caused by (syn. ) and transmitted by and phlebotomine sand flies. Dogs not only are the main host reservoirs of the parasite but also suffer the disease; therefore, canine VL (CVL) has assumed an important role in public health. In Colom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene 2020-02, Vol.102 (2), p.289-293
Main Authors: Arbeláez, Natalia, Moreno, Jaime, Murillo, Javier, Montoya, Andrés, Robledo, Sara M, Vélez, Andrés, Vélez, Iván D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Allopurinol - therapeutic use
Animals
Antimetabolites - therapeutic use
Antiprotozoal Agents - therapeutic use
Base Sequence
Bone marrow
Cities - epidemiology
Colombia - epidemiology
DNA, Protozoan - genetics
DNA, Protozoan - isolation & purification
Dog Diseases - epidemiology
Dog Diseases - parasitology
Dogs
Leishmania infantum - genetics
Leishmania infantum - isolation & purification
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - drug therapy
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - epidemiology
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - veterinary
Male
Meglumine Antimoniate - therapeutic use
Parasitic diseases
Surveillance
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Summary:American visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a vector-borne disease caused by (syn. ) and transmitted by and phlebotomine sand flies. Dogs not only are the main host reservoirs of the parasite but also suffer the disease; therefore, canine VL (CVL) has assumed an important role in public health. In Colombia, human and CVL are restricted to two transmission foci: one in the north region (Caribbean coast) and other in the central south region (middle Magdalena River Valley). We present a CVL case involving a 2-year-old male dog with a history of lack of appetite, general weakness, and progressive loss of weight. A diagnosis of CVL was obtained using the direct parasitological examination in spleen and bone marrow samples stained with Giemsa and RT-qPCR. The infecting species was identified as by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism amplifying the gene from bone marrow and spleen samples and confirming by sequencing. The patient responded favorably to treatment with intramuscular meglumine antimoniate at a dose of 100 mg/kg daily for 8 weeks and oral allopurinol at a dose of 10 mg/kg every 12 hours until new indication. This is the first report of urban CVL in the city of Cali, Colombia, highlighting the need for surveillance and control programs in the municipalities of the department of Valle del Cauca, a region where VL has not been informed before. The findings also indicate the need to reinforce the surveillance programs in other rural and urban regions of the country where favorable eco-epidemiological conditions exist.
ISSN:0002-9637
1476-1645
DOI:10.4269/ajtmh.19-0515