Emergence of Feline Sporotrichosis near Brazil Border, Argentina, 2023-2024

Abstract

We describe a large urban outbreak of feline sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis fungi in Argentina. Over a 7-month period in Puerto Iguazú, which borders Brazil, we identified culture-proven sporotrichosis in 9 cases across 7 households. Public health officials should coordinate cross-border One Health actions and institute context-specific interventions.

Keywords: Argentina; One Health; cats; communicable diseases; emerging; fungi; sporotrichosis; zoonoses.

Figure

Spatial distribution of feline sporotrichosis near Brazil border, Argentina, 2023–2024. A, B) Relative position in South America showing the location of the Triple Frontier (A) and province of Misiones, Argentina (B). C) Puerto Iguazú within Argentina, showing positive confirmed feline sporotrichosis cases (n = 9; pink stars) and ruled-out cases (n = 12; yellow stars). D) Enlarged image of yellow box in panel C. For those areas where multiple cases (positive and negative) overlap in location, the number of individual cases is indicated. *Cases where intrahousehold transmission occurred between 2 cats (FSCMi24–FSCMi25 and FSCMi41–FSCMi43). In the spatial analysis, the distance between households with feline sporotrichosis cases was measured by using nearest-neighbor calculation in ArcGIS Pro (https://pro.arcgis.com), which calculates the shortest distance between 2 points.