Domestic feline cutaneous leishmaniasis in the municipality of Ribas do Rio Pardo, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil: a case report

Cutaneous leishmaniases are anthropozoonoses that involve many species of Leishmania and a wide variety of wild mammalian hosts, thus presenting high importance to public health. This study reports the second case of feline leishmaniasis in Mato Grosso do Sul state, in which Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis was found in a domestic cat from Ribas do Rio Pardo. Clinical signs were similar to those observed in other diseases commonly diagnosed in cats, such as cryptococcosis and sporotrichosis. Cutaneous leishmaniasis should, therefore, be added to differential diagnoses by feline veterinary practitioners, and also adequate investigations should be carried out to verify the relevance of domestic cats as L. amazonensis reservoirs.

Leishmania (Viannia) utingensis n. sp., a parasite from the sandfly Lutzomyia (Viannamyia) tuberculata in Amazonian Brazil.

A leishmanial parasite isolated in 1977 from a specimen of the sandfly Lutzomyia tuberculata from Pará State, Amazonian Brazil, has been characterized following its comparison with other species of Leishmania from the same region, using isoenzyme profiles, monoclonal antibodies and characterization of the miniexon gene repeat, using the polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR). It is described here under the name of Leishmania (Viannia) utingensis n. sp.

Genetic variation in populations of Leishmania species in Brazil.

The population structure of strains of Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis sensu lato from Pará State and Paraná State in Brazil, of L. (V.) shawi and L. (Leishmania) amazonensis from Pará State, and the relationships of type strains of the subgenera L. (Viannia) and L. (Leishmania) were examined by the random-amplified polymorphic deoxyribonucleic acid (RAPD) technique. Four different primers (M13-40, QG1, L15996 and delta gt11R) were used. The bands were analysed using the neighbor-joining (NJ) and unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) algorithms of the MEGA package. The topology of the NJ and UPGMA trees was very similar but they were not always identical. Both trees differentiated the standard strains of the different species. Strains from the same location were grouped together only in the UPGMA phenogram of the M13-40 primer. L. (V.) braziliensis isolates from Paraná State were genetically closer to those from Paragominas, Pará State than to those from the Amazonian regions of Carajás in Pará State and Peru. The relationship was not dependent on geographical distance. It is postulated that the groups arose from different origins, in which the Amazonian stocks were related to Psychodopygus sand flies while the Paraná strains originated from a gene pool transmitted by Lutzomyia sand flies such as Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) whitmani. Transmission by Ps. complexus in Paragominas is considered to be a secondary adaptation from the Lutzomyia leishmanial gene pool. Although the vectors of L. (V.) braziliensis are poorly known in the Amazon region, there is strong evidence that the major vectors are all Psychodopygus spp. There was a high degree of genetic variability amongst the L. (V.) shawi strains and there was no clear grouping according to the strains' origins. The genetic variability amongst L. (L.) amazonensis strains from the same locations was much lower but they formed 2 groups which coincided with their origin. Our results support the clonal population structure of Leishmania isolates and suggest that their distribution is related to the origin of the gene pool as well as to present vector and reservoir movements.

An outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis among soldiers in Belém, Pará State, Brazil, caused by Leishmania (Viannia) lindenbergi n. sp. A new leishmanial parasite of man in the Amazon region.

Eight cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis are recorded among soldiers of the Brazilian Forest Infantry stationed in Belém, State of Pará, north of Brazil. The infections, all acquired during manoeuvres in nearby degraded primary forest, are attributed to a new member of the subgenus Viannia, Leishmania (V.) lindenbergi n. sp. A further infection by this parasite was encountered in a woman, who lived very close to the same piece of forest. The new parasite has been characterised and differentiated from other known species of the subgenus Viannia following the combined use of enzyme electrophoresis and monoclonal antibodies techniques. The eco-epidemiology of L. (V.) lindenbergi is discussed: by far the most abundant anthropophilic sandfly in the type locality was identified as Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) antunesi (Coutinho), and this remains high on the list of possible vectors.

American visceral leishmaniasis: wild animal hosts.

In Colombia it has been suggested that the rodent Proechimys canicollis may be a reservoir-host of Leishmania (L.) chagasi, the cause of American visceral leishmaniasis, based on polymerase chain reaction/hybridization tests. We have detected no infection in laboratory-bred specimens of another species, P. guyannensis, after their inoculation with promastigotes or amastigotes of this parasite from Amazonian Brazil.

The dermal leishmaniases of Brazil, with special reference to the eco-epidemiology of the disease in Amazonia

Six species of Leishmania are at present known to cause cutaneous and/or mucocutaneous leishamniasis in Brazil, and they are all to be found in the Amazon region of this country. The eco-epidemiology of each is discussed, with the observation that the Amazonian leishmaniases are all zoonoses, with their source in silvatic mammals and phlebotomine sandfly vectors. With man's destruction of the natural forest in southern Brazil, some sandfly species have survived by adapting to a peridomestic or domiciliary habitat in rural areas. Some domestic animals, such as dogs and equines are seemingly now involved in the epidemiology of the disease. No such process has yet been reported in the Amazon region, but may well take place with the continuing devastation of its forest.