Autochthonous Outbreak and Expansion of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis, Uruguay

Abstract

We report an outbreak of canine visceral leishmaniasis in Uruguay. Blood specimens from 11/45 dogs tested positive for Leishmania spp. Specimens of Lutzomyia longipalpis sand flies were captured; typing revealed Leishmania infantum. Our findings document an expansion of visceral leishmaniasis to southern South America and risk for vectorborne transmission to humans.

Keywords: Leishmania infantum; Uruguay; canine visceral leishmaniasis; dogs; parasites; parasitic diseases; protozoa; sand flies; vector-borne infections; zoonoses.

Figure

Survey of Leishmania spp. infection in dogs in Arenitas Blancas, Salto, Uruguay. A) Surveyed area in the locality of Arenitas Blancas in Salto, Uruguay. White squares represent the location of Lutzomia longipalpis sand fly captures, and black circles represent domiciles in which infected dogs were found; numbers indicate number of Leishmania spp.–infected sand flies or dogs at that location. B) Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree obtained from the analysis of Leishmania internal transcribed spacer 1 sequences from tissue samples of infected dogs. Bootstrap values are represented at the nodes of major branches. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site. *Sequences obtained from infected dog samples. †Reference strains sequenced by the authors.