Wild rabbits are Leishmania infantum reservoirs in southeastern Spain
Metadatos
Afficher la notice complèteAuteur
Martín Sánchez, Joaquina; Díaz Sáez, Victoriano; Morillas Márquez, Francisco; Corpas-López, Victoriano; Ibáñez De Haro, Patricia; Torres Llamas, Andrés; Morales Yuste, ManuelEditorial
Wiley Online Library
Materia
Leishmania infantum Mediterranean hotspots parasite molecular surveillance
Date
2024-05-01Referencia bibliográfica
Martín Sánchez J. et. al. Zoonoses Public Health. 2024;00:1–7. [https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.13139]
Patrocinador
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain (MICIU/AEI/10.1339/50110011033); FEDER, UE through the project, Grant/ Award Number: PID2022-142230NB. 100; Universidad de Granada/CBUARésumé
We contribute to the understanding of the transmission dynamics of
Leishmania infantum suggesting the involvement of rabbits as wild reservoirs.
Results: The prevalence of infection was 86.0% (270/314 wild rabbits) ranging from
18.2% to 100% in natural geographical regions. The estimated average parasite load
was 324.8 [CI 95% 95.3–554.3] parasites per mg of ear lobe ranging from 0 to 91,597
parasites/mg per tissue section.
Conclusions: A positive correlation was found between skin parasite load in wild rabbits
and human incidence with evidence of the presence of the same L. infantum genotypes
in rabbits and humans, providing new epidemiological and biological basis for
the consideration of wild rabbits as a relevant L. infantum wild reservoir. Molecular
parasite surveillance reflects the great genotypic variability of the parasite population
in wild rabbits. Most of these genotypes have also been found to infect humans,
dogs and sandflies in the region. Our findings also highlight that direct genotyping of
the parasite in host tissues should be used for molecular surveillance of the parasite
instead of cultured isolates.