Inquérito sorológico da leptospirose em cães da Região Metropolitana do Recife e da Ilha de Fernando de Noronha, PE

Abstract

Canine leptospirosis is considered a zoonosis of worldwide distribution and takes on considerable importance as an economic problem and public health, especially in developing countries. The objective was determine the frequency of aglutinins anti-Leptospira spp. and more prevalent serovars of dogs from Metropolitan Region of Recife and Fernando de Noronha island, Pernambuco, Brazil. Between 2008 to 2011 sera of 286 dogs were collected; 187 dogs were of five municipialities (Camaragibe, Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Olinda, Paulista and Recife) and 63 districts for Metropolitan Region of Recife, and 99 dogs from Fernando de Noronha island, both sexes and variable ages. Dogs from Metropolitan Region of Recife were Veterinary Clinical of “Centro de Vigilância Ambiental” (CVA Recife) (n=83), Veterinary Hospital of Department of Veterinary Medicine of “Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco – UFRPE (n=11), and Kennel of CVA Recife (n=18), and district of Dois Irmãos (n=75). Sera were examined by Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT 100) with 25 serovars. Out of 187 sera of dogs examined from Metropolitan Region of Recife, 7 (3.7%) were seropositive to aglutinins anti-Leptospira spp. from Olinda (2/7,28.6%), and Recife (5/7, 71.4%). Most prevalent serovars were Icterohaemorrhagiae in 4/7, Copenhageni in 2/7, Castellonis in 1/7 and Pomona in 1/7. There was no statistically significant difference for the variables sex, age and race. In relation of sera of dogs from Fernando de Noronha Island, out of 99 dogs examined, 10 (10.1%) were seropositive and the most prevalent serovars were Copenhageni, Grippotyphosa and Autumnalis. This is the first serological survey of leptospirosis in dogs from Fernando de Noronha Island; the dogs of the areas examined were exposed to the Leptospira spp. in environments possibly contaminated by synantropic rodents; and the dogs can serve as sentinel animals for infection by Leptospira spp. to public health agencies.