Monitoring the outbreak of equine glanders in Alagoas, Brazil: Clinical, immunological, molecular, and anatomopathological findings

Abstract

Glanders is an infectious and often lethal zoonotic disease of equines caused by the bacterium, Burkholderia mallei. This condition is characterized by respiratory, lymphatic, and cutaneous lesions. In this study, we monitored the development of clinical symptoms in animals naturally infected with B. mallei across different equine breeds and also isolated and characterized the disease-causing bacteria. We studied two official glanders outbreaks in the state of Alagoas, Brazil. During the outbreaks, we performed clinical and immunological follow-up of the animals, as well as euthanasia and anatomopathological examination. We also collected diagnostic materials for isolative, phenotypic, molecular, and biological testing. We did not observe any clinical patterns of glanders among animals infected with the same strain of B. mallei. Based on our results, we suggest that early diagnosis of infection should be made through highly sensitive and specific immunoassays. In asymptomatic but positive test cases, we confirmed the importance of conducting pathological, microbiological, and molecular examinations.

Análise espacial do mormo em equídeos no Estado do Tocantins entre 2015 e 2021

“…O aumento relativo de casos, pode ser descrito em decorrência as aglomerações geradas por eventos equestres não fiscalizados pela defesa agropecuária, que invariavelmente reúne animais que não foram testados (Ali-Ani & Roberson, 2007;Verma, 1988). A circulação da mesma cepa da bactéria verificada em estudos realizados por Falcão, et al, (2019) e Rocha et al, (2021) na região Nordeste confirmam a relação existentes no comércio de animais interestadual e aglomerações em eventos e feira à transmissão da doença.…”