Serological and molecular detection of infection with Mycobacterium leprae in Brazilian six banded armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus)

Prevalence of Mycobacterium leprae in armadillos in Brazil: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Database searches identified 122 references (S1 PRISMA Flow Diagram). A study known to be under review at the time of database searching was also included [22]. After de-duplication and screening by title and abstract, 13 references were retained for full text review, of which 10 were included for data extraction.…”

“…The four remaining studies were located in the north or north east of Brazil: a 2012 study caught 29 armadillos (27 Dasypus novemcinctus, 2 Euphractus sexcinctus) between July and August 2007 in the north east region state of Ceará [8]; two more recent studies caught 16 and 12 Dasypus novemcinctus from the states of Pará (unspecified dates) and Amazonas (expedition in August 2015) [10], respectively; the most recent study (2019) caught 20 Euphractus [22]. The 10 included studies yielded a total sample of 302 armadillos (295 live, 7 roadkill), comprising 207 (69%) Dasypus novemcinctus ('Nine-banded'), 67 (22%) Euphractus sexcinctus ('Six-banded'), 16 (5%) Priodontes maximus ('Giant'), 10 (3%) Cabassous unicinctus ('Southern Naked-tailed'), and 2 (1%) Cabassous tatouay ('Greater Naked-tailed') ( Fig 2).…”

“…The 10 included studies yielded a total sample of 302 armadillos (295 live, 7 roadkill), comprising 207 (69%) Dasypus novemcinctus ('Nine-banded'), 67 (22%) Euphractus sexcinctus ('Six-banded'), 16 (5%) Priodontes maximus ('Giant'), 10 (3%) Cabassous unicinctus ('Southern Naked-tailed'), and 2 (1%) Cabassous tatouay ('Greater Naked-tailed') ( Fig 2). Armadillos were captured by local hunters in 7 studies [3,8,10,22,23,26,27], by veterinarians or wildlife specialists in 2 studies [7,28] and the method was not reported in one study [9].…”

“…Armadillos were anaesthetized and euthanised in 5 studies [7][8][9][10]22], captured and released in 4 studies [23,[26][27][28] or specimens were obtained from animals recently killed by local hunters [3]. Blood specimens were taken in 7 studies [7,9,22,23,[26][27][28] but only three authors (Deps [23,26,27], Pedrini et al [9], da Silva Ferreira et al [22]) used these to test for M. leprae. A wide range of tissue types were sampled (S1 Data), with all except 2 studies (Pedrini et al PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES [9], da Silva Ferreira et al [22]) using spleen specimens and all except 2 (Stefani et al [10], da Silva et al [3]) using liver and/or ear tissue specimens.…”

“…Blood specimens were taken in 7 studies [7,9,22,23,[26][27][28] but only three authors (Deps [23,26,27], Pedrini et al [9], da Silva Ferreira et al [22]) used these to test for M. leprae. A wide range of tissue types were sampled (S1 Data), with all except 2 studies (Pedrini et al PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES [9], da Silva Ferreira et al [22]) using spleen specimens and all except 2 (Stefani et al [10], da Silva et al [3]) using liver and/or ear tissue specimens. One study (Pedrini et al [9]) also tested for M. leprae in one faeces specimen and a small number (5) of nostril swabs.…”