An Urban Case of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis in the Municipality of Pereira, Colombia

Abstract

American visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is caused by Leishmania infantum/chagasi, transmitted by the sandflies Lutzomyia longipalpis and Lu. evansi. Dogs are the main reservoir and source for zoonotic infections in humans. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to diagnose such diseases in domestic animals to maintain public health. In 2019, the authors of the present study observed intracellular amastigotes in Giemsa-stained bone marrow smear using a real-time qPCR (parasite load was 484,336 DNA copies/mL), a canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) case caused by L. infantum/chagasi, in a 22-month-old male, English bulldog from Pereira, Colombia, a municipality not previously considered endemic for CVL nor human VL. Therefore, further field studies are necessary to determine if there is a low-grade circulation of this parasite among dogs and other animal reservoirs in the area, also entomological surveys are of utmost importance, as well as highlighting the clinical suspicion of this disease in domestic animals and humans.