Canine Leishmaniasis: An Overview of the Current Status and Strategies for Control.

Canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is a vector-borne disease caused by Leishmania infantum and is transmitted by female phlebotomine sand flies primarily between animals and secondarily to humans. The course of infection may be different from one individual dog to another, ranging from spontaneous cure to acute evolution that leads to death, if proper management and therapy are not adopted. A parasitological cure is rarely achieved and clinical recurrences in CanL are frequent. Vaccination associated with the use of topical insecticides is undoubtedly the most effective form of prevention and control of the disease. In order to integrate the most important scientific knowledge of the literature in one objective publication, this review proposes a short overview of the main points of CanL.

Efficacy of Clonostachys rosea and Duddingtonia flagrans in Reducing the Haemonchus contortus Infective Larvae.

The biocontrol is proven effective in reducing in vitro and in situ free-living stages of major gastrointestinal helminths, allowing progress in reducing losses by parasitism, maximizing production, and productivity. This study aimed at evaluating the predatory activity of fungal isolates of Duddingtonia flagrans and Clonostachys rosea species and its association on infective larvae (L3) of H. contortus in microplots formed by grasses and maintained in a protected environment. All groups were added with 10 mL of an aqueous suspension with 618 H. contortus L3 approximately. Group 1 was used as control and only received the infective larvae. Groups 2 and 3 received D. flagrans chlamydospores and C. rosea conidia at doses of 5 × 10(6). Group 4 received the combination of 5 × 10(6) D. flagrans chlamydospores + 5 × 10(6) C. rosea conidia. D. flagrans and C. rosea showed nematicidal effectiveness reducing by 91.5 and 88.9%, respectively, the population of H. contortus L3. However, when used in combination efficiency decreased to 74.5% predation of H. contortus L3. These results demonstrate the need for further studies to determine the existence of additive effects, synergistic or antagonistic, between these species.

Mycelial mass production of fungi Duddingtonia flagrans and Monacrosporium thaumasium under different culture conditions.

BACKGROUND: Duddingtonia flagrans and Monacrosporium thaumasium are promising fungus species in veterinary biological control of gastrointestinal nematodes because of their production capacity of fungal structures (conidia and/or chlamydospores), growth efficiency in laboratory solid media and especially their predatory capacity. However, their large-scale production remains a challenge. This work aimed at evaluating the mycelial mass production of D. flagrans (AC001 and CG722) and M. thaumasium (NF34A) nematophagous fungi under different culture conditions. RESULTS: The results did not present significant differences (p > 0.05) in mycelia mass production between the isolates cultured under pH 4.0. Furthermore, after 168 hrs., the isolate CG722 presented a lower production of mycelial mass in medium CM (corn meal) (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: We therefore concluded the use of culture media SD (soy dextrose) and CG (corn grits) at pH values between 6.0 and 7.0 is suitable for high mycelial mass production of D. flagrans and M. thaumasium.