Serological survey of anti‐Leptospira spp. antibodies in individuals with animal hoarding disorder and their dogs in a major city of Southern Brazil

Abstract

Background Individuals with hoarding disorder (HD) presented a persistent difficulty in detaching from objects and/or animals. Unhealthy conditions, frequently found in cases of animal HD (AHD), may favour environmental contamination and the spread of zoonotic pathogens. Despite that, only one study of zoonotic diseases in individuals with AHD and their companion animals has been conducted to date. Objectives This study aimed to assess the seroprevalence of anti‐Leptospira spp. antibodies in individuals with AHD and their dogs in a major city of Southern Brazil. Methods Blood samples were obtained from 264 dogs (21 households) and 19 individuals with AHD (11 households) and tested by microscopic agglutination test. Results All human samples were seronegative. Seropositivity was found in 16/264 (6.1%; CI 95% 3.3–9.6%) dogs from 11/21 (52.38%) households, with titres ranging from 100 up to 400, and Copenhageni (10/16; 62.5%) was the most frequent serovar. Surprisingly, seropositivity of hoarded dogs found herein was among the lowest reportedly observed in other dog populations of Brazil. Two epidemiological variables were significantly associated with seropositivity in dogs: the presence of cat hoarding (p = 0.004) and the report of flood occurrence in the household (p = 0.031). Conclusions No individuals with AHD were seropositive, and besides the lower seroprevalence of dogs, they probably had contact with Leptospira spp. at some point in their life. Since dogs can be considered potential sentinels in leptospirosis, public health programs must become aware of the risk of leptospirosis cases in households of individuals with AHD and nearby communities.

Spatial Owner-Dog Seroprevalence of Leptospira spp. Antibodies in Oceanic Islands and Costal Mainland of Southern Brazil

“…Strains were maintained in Ellinghausen-McCullough-Johnson-Harris (EMJH) media at 28 • C, with weekly evaluation and replication. A 1:100 dilution was used as the cutoff point for the serological test, as also established in previous studies [6,15,16]. All samples were analyzed at dilutions ranging from 1:100 to 1:3200, considering the highest positive dilution to possess the serum title [15,17,18].…”

“…A 1:100 dilution was used as the cutoff point for the serological test, as also established in previous studies [6,15,16]. All samples were analyzed at dilutions ranging from 1:100 to 1:3200, considering the highest positive dilution to possess the serum title [15,17,18]. For seroreactivity assessment, the sample was considered reactive when at least 50% of the leptospiral bacterial suspensions were found to be agglutinated in the test reading, with 100× magnification under a dark field microscope.…”

Insights on seroprevalence of leptospirosis in dogs and cats from people with animal hoarding disorder profile in a semiarid region of Brazil

“…Differently, in the southern and southeastern regions of Brazil, lower frequencies were described (6% and 20% in dogs, and 8.3% in cats) (CUNHA et al, 2022;CUNHA et al, 2019). In this context, it is suggested that several factors may contribute to these differences, including geographic location, type of housing, level of health care provided by official health services (POLAK et al, 2014), and occurrence of synanthropic animals carrying leptospires (FERNANDES et al, 2018).…”

“…Animals are subjected to inadequate nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care, predisposing them to the occurrence of infectious diseases, including those with zoonotic potential. In southern and southeastern Brazil, reports of dogs and cats involving HD cases indicated seropositive animals as possible potential sources of infection (CUNHA et al, 2019;CUNHA et al, 2022).…”

“…In fact, the Icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup as being more common in both species may indicate the involvement of the main maintenance hosts of this serogroup, which is Rattus norvegicus, in addition to Rattus rattus and Mus musculus, which may shed pathogenic leptospires (FERNANDES et al, 2018). It should be noted that the deficient sanitary conditions reported in animal HD environments can predispose to rodent infestation (CUNHA et al, 2022).…”