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Wildlife Hosts of <i>Leishmania infantum</i> in a Re-Emerging Focus of Human Leishmaniasis, in Emilia-Romagna, Northeast Italy
oleh: Roberta Taddei, Arianna Bregoli, Giorgio Galletti, Elena Carra, Laura Fiorentini, Maria Cristina Fontana, Matteo Frasnelli, Carmela Musto, Giovanni Pupillo, Alessandro Reggiani, Annalisa Santi, Arianna Rossi, Marco Tamba, Mattia Calzolari, Gianluca Rugna
| Format: | Article |
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| Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2022-11-01 |
Deskripsi
In the last decade, an upsurge of human leishmaniasis has been reported in the Emilia-Romagna region, Northeast Italy. Epidemiologic data have raised doubts about the role of dogs as the main reservoirs for <i>Leishmania infantum</i>. In the present study, a total of 1077 wild animals were screened for <i>L. infantum</i> DNA in earlobe and spleen samples from 2019 to 2022. The lymph nodes were tested only in 23 animals already positive in the earlobe and/or spleen. A total of 71 (6.6%) animals resulted positive in at least one of the sampled tissues, including 3/18 (16.7%) wolves, 6/39 (15.4%) European hares, 38/309 (12.3%) roe deer, 1/11 (9.1%) red deer, 8/146 (4.9%) wild boars, 13/319 (4.1%) red foxes, 1/54 (1.9%) porcupine, and 1/59 (1.7%) European badger. Most of the infected animals (62/71) tested positive only in the earlobe tissue, only four animals (two roe deer and two wild boars) tested positive only in the spleen, and five animals (three roe deer and two red foxes) resulted positive for both tissues. <i>L. infantum</i> DNA was detected in the lymph nodes of 6/23 animals. <i>L. infantum</i> detection occurred in all seasons associated with low real-time PCR Ct values. Further research is needed in order to clarify the role of wildlife in the re-emerging focus of leishmaniasis in Northeast Italy.