Natural infection by Trypanosoma cruzi in dogs located in Ituberá, Southern Bahia, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Souza, Graziela Baroni de
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Guedes, Paula Elisa Brandão, Oliveira, Thaís Nascimento de Andrade, Carvalho, Fábio Santos, Albuquerque, George Rêgo, Silva, Fabiana Lessa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Semina. Ciências Agrárias (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/semagrarias/article/view/29196
• topic: Canis familiaris; Molecular diagnostics; Chagas disease; Trypanosomiasis.; Canis familiaris; Diagnóstico molecular; Doença de Chagas; Tripanossomíase.

Chagas disease, caused by the flagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is an anthropozoonosis of great importance for public health. Several species of mammals are reservoirs for this parasite, including dogs. The objective of this work was to verify the natural infection by T. cruzi in the population of dogs of the municipality of Ituberá, Bahia. A total of 392 domiciled dogs from all districts of the city were evaluated; five milliliters of blood was collected from the dogs for molecular diagnosis. T. cruzi DNA was amplified through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR); the primers P35 and P36, which amplify a fragment of 330 bp, were used. The PCR products were subjected to 2% agarose gel electrophoresis containing Sybr (Invitrogen). Of the 392 dogs evaluated, only 2 (0.51%) animals, one male and one female, tested positive for T. cruzi. This study concluded that there are dogs naturally infected by T. cruzi in the municipality of Ituberá-Bahia and that this finding is an alert to veterinarians, health professionals, and local health authorities that their own dogs can act as reservoirs of the disease.