Geographic Expansion of Sporotrichosis, Brazil

Guideline for the management of feline sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis and literature revision

“…Cases of feline sporotrichosis were reported in the USA, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Malaysia, Spain, Germany, Australia, Japan, Thailand, the UK, and Brazil [3-5, 17, 18, 41, 42]. In this last country, an impressive and exponential number of feline cases have been documented in several states [2,17,24,29,43,44]. As already commented, in Brazil, the main etiological agent of feline sporotrichosis is S. brasiliensis [23-25, 31, 45, 46].…”

“…As mentioned before, feline sporotrichosis was first described in Brazil in the 1950s and its occurrence remained sporadic until the 1990s [12,13,[57][58][59][60][61]. Two hundred and forty-four cases in dogs (from 1998 to 2014) and 5.113 cases in cats (from 1998 to 2017) were diagnosed and registered by a single institution of Rio de Janeiro State, Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas, Fiocruz [2,17,62]. It is necessary to be aware that these numbers indicate the severity and endemicity of sporotrichosis but do not reflect the real incidence of this disease either in Rio de Janeiro State or in Brazil.…”

“…In the last 5 years, an expansion of sporotrichosis occurred to several other regions of Brazil with cases reported in the following states: Mato Grosso [73], Mato Grosso do Sul, Distrito Federal [74], Rio Grande do Norte [75], Paraíba [76], Pernambuco [77,78], Alagoas [79], Acre, and Pará [2]. Studies on the identification of the causative agent of feline sporotrichosis in the northeast region have not yet been documented.…”

“…Outside Brazil, to date, only Argentina has reported the occurrence of S. brasiliensis infection in humans and cats [4,5] which is alarming because this suggests the transboundary expansion of sporotrichosis caused by S. brasiliensis to other Latin America countries [2]. Importantly, health authorities of Brazilian neighboring countries which have a dense transit of people and animals in a daily basis, such as Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Uruguay, should be aware to identify cases rapidly as well as, to implement policies for prevention and control of sporotrichosis.…”

“…This zoonosis has been reported in the south and southeast regions for almost 21 years [1]. The geographic expansion of zoonotic sporotrichosis to the northeast region of the country occurred in the last 5 years [2]. Recently, feline and zoonotic cases were reported in other South American countries [3][4][5].…”