Abstract
Dirofilaria immitis and Acanthocheilonema reconditum are common parasites in dogs but have also been reported parasitizing humans. The differential diagnosis and epidemiological evaluation of these zoonoses are important to the development of efficient public health policies and control strategies. The purpose of this study was to carry out an epidemiological survey by using molecular methods for the specific identification of filarid parasites of domestic dogs in the Marajó mesoregion, State of Pará (PA), Brazil. A total of 418 canine blood samples from Marajó mesoregion (Northern Brazil) were collected, submitted to DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with "pan filarial" primer, subsequent sequencing and sequence analysis using BLASTn software comparison with previously deposited sequences in GenBank. After that, a phylogenetic analysis by Maximum Parsimony was performed to aid the specific diagnosis. The obtained sequences showed the occurrence of 9 (2.15%) dogs infected with D. immitis and 30 (7.18%) by A. reconditum, with a confidence interval of 95%, there were no cases of co-infection. We observed that male dogs were more likely to D. immits and A. reconditum infection. However, age was not significant to both infections. This study reports for the first time the occurrence of A. reconditum in the northern region of Brazil and confirmed the presence of D. immitis in the Marajó mesoregion.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Acanthocheilonema
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Acanthocheilonemiasis / blood
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Acanthocheilonemiasis / epidemiology
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Acanthocheilonemiasis / parasitology
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Acanthocheilonemiasis / veterinary*
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Animals
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Brazil
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Dirofilaria immitis
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Dirofilariasis / blood
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Dirofilariasis / epidemiology*
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Dirofilariasis / parasitology*
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Dog Diseases / blood
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Dog Diseases / epidemiology*
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Dog Diseases / parasitology*
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Dogs
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Female
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Male
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Molecular Epidemiology
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Neglected Diseases / blood
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Neglected Diseases / epidemiology
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Neglected Diseases / parasitology
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Neglected Diseases / veterinary
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Phylogeny
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Zoonoses / blood
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Zoonoses / epidemiology
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Zoonoses / parasitology
Grants and funding
This research has received several funding sources. All authors received investments from Fundação Amazônia de Amparo a Estudos e Pesquisas (
http://www.fapespa.pa.gov.br), Ministério da Saúde (
http://portalsaude.saude.gov.br) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (
http://cnpq.br) from Edital 023/2009 PPSUS-Marajó, FAPESPA/MS/CNPq in Marcadores Epidemiológicos em Saúde no Arquipélago do Marajó project, for sample collection and equipment acquisition. JNS, EGG, FTVM, APF, EGGA, TR and DATF received investment from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (
www.capes.gov.br) from Programa Pró-Amazônia – Biodiversidade e Sustentabilidade (Edital 047/2012) and Programa Nacional de Incentivo à Pesquisa em Parasitologia Básica (Edital 032/2010), for reagents acquisition. Also, JNS receives Scholarship Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (
http://cnpq.br) (Edital Produtividade emPesquisa–PQ/2016) and invests additional resources to reagents. APF received investment from Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação de Universidade Federal do Pará (
www.propesp.ufpa.br) from Edital 02/2017-PROPESPPAPQ 2017 for translation and revision of this paper. This work is part of the results of the Master’s of Science thesis of EGGA, developed in the Biology of Infectious and Parasitic Agents Postgraduation Program, Federal University of Pará (Universidade Federal do Pará -UFPA). The Pará State Health Department (Secretaria de Saúde do Estado Pará - SESPA) gave support to this project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.