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. 2014:2014:592986.
doi: 10.1155/2014/592986. Epub 2014 Feb 23.

Rattus norvegicus (Rodentia: Muridae) Infected by Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum (syn. Le. chagasi) in Brazil

Fabiana de Oliveira Lara-Silva  1 , Ricardo Andrade Barata  2 , Erika Monteiro Michalsky  1 , Eduardo de Castro Ferreira  3 , Maria Olímpia Garcia Lopes  4 , Aimara da Costa Pinheiro  5 , Consuelo Latorre Fortes-Dias  6 , Edelberto Santos Dias  1
Affiliations

Rattus norvegicus (Rodentia: Muridae) Infected by Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum (syn. Le. chagasi) in Brazil

Fabiana de Oliveira Lara-Silva et al. Biomed Res Int. 2014.

Abstract

In the present study we surveyed the fauna of phlebotomine sand flies and small mammals in peridomestic areas from a Brazilian municipality where the American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) is endemic. A total of 608 female phlebotomine sand flies were captured during nine months in 2009 and 2010. Seven different species were represented with 60% of them being Lutzomyia intermedia and Lu. whitmani, both incriminated vectors of ACL. Lu. longipalpis, a proven vector of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was also captured at high proportion (12.8%). Genomic DNA analysis of 136 species-specific pools of female sand flies followed by molecular genotyping showed the presence of Leishmania infantum DNA in two pools of Lu. longipalpis. The same Leishmania species was found in one blood sample from Rattus norvegicus among 119 blood and tissue samples analysed. This is the first report of Le. infantum in R. norvegicus in the Americas and suggests a possible role for this rodent species in the zoonotic cycle of VL. Our study coincided with the reemergence of VL in Governador Valadares.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Geographical location of Governador Valadares municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Sites of capture of phlebotomine sand flies (pink circles) and small mammals trapping (black stars) in the districts under study (identified with black dots and numbers). Lu. longipalpis samples infected by Le. infantum were captured at sites 3 and 15; R. norvegicus equally infected was captured at site 14.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Agarose gel electrophoresis of the amplification products from LnPCR for the SSUrRNA gene. Samples: M. ΦX174/HaeIII DNA digest; (1) Lu. longipalpis genomic DNA (GV05); (2) Lu. longipalpis genomic DNA (GV09); (3) R. norvegicus blood DNA (GV017); NC. Negative control (no DNA); PC. Positive control (Le. braziliensis MHOM/BR/74/M2930) DNA.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Nucleotide (nt) alignment of the 353 bp fragment of Leishmania spp. DNA from Lu. longipalpis (GV05 and GV09) and R. norvegicus (GV017) with Le. (Viannia) braziliensis (M80292.1), Le. (V.) amazonensis (M80293.1), and Le. (Le.) infantum (M81430.1) (syn Le. chagasi). Identical nucleotides are represented by dots and nucleotide deletion by a hyphen.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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