A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy.
Though scantly investigated, Leishmania infantum infection and clinical cases of leishmaniasis in cats have been recently reported in several countries of the Mediterranean basin, with large variability in prevalence data. A major limitation in the comparability of the data available is attributed t...
Published in: | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2019
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 https://doaj.org/article/3b5f4f496b6a4fa196bc2a00775934bf |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:3b5f4f496b6a4fa196bc2a00775934bf |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:3b5f4f496b6a4fa196bc2a00775934bf 2023-05-15T15:15:29+02:00 A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy. Roberta Iatta Tommaso Furlanello Vito Colella Viviana Domenica Tarallo Maria Stefania Latrofa Emanuele Brianti Paolo Trerotoli Nicola Decaro Eleonora Lorusso Bettina Schunack Guadalupe Mirò Filipe Dantas-Torres Domenico Otranto 2019-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 https://doaj.org/article/3b5f4f496b6a4fa196bc2a00775934bf EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 https://doaj.org/article/3b5f4f496b6a4fa196bc2a00775934bf PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 13, Iss 7, p e0007594 (2019) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 2022-12-31T07:46:37Z Though scantly investigated, Leishmania infantum infection and clinical cases of leishmaniasis in cats have been recently reported in several countries of the Mediterranean basin, with large variability in prevalence data. A major limitation in the comparability of the data available is attributed to the differences in diagnostic techniques employed and cat populations sampled. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of L. infantum infection in owned cats across Italy by serological and molecular tests and the identification of potential risk factors. Blood samples from 2,659 cats from northern (n = 1,543), central (n = 471) and southern (n = 645) Italy were tested for antibodies against L. infantum, by an immunofluorescence antibody test and for the parasites' DNA, by real-time PCR. Samples were additionally screened for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) proviral DNAs. An overall cumulative L. infantum prevalence of 3.9% was recorded by serology (3.3%) and/or qPCR (0.8%), with a higher rate (10.5%) in southern Italy. The risk of L. infantum infection in cats was significantly associated to the geographical areas (South vs North and Centre; p<0.0001), age class (from 19 months to 6 years old vs ≤18 months old, p = 0.0003), neutering status (not neutered vs neutered, p = 0.0028) and FIV infection (p = 0.0051).Though the role of cats in the epidemiology of L. infantum is still debated, our findings indicate that cats are exposed to and/or infected by this protozoan, mainly in endemic regions of Italy. Hence, a standardization of procedures for a prompt diagnosis of L. infantum infection in cats and for screening cat population is crucial for a better understanding of the epidemiology of feline leishmaniasis, and of the potential role of cats in the transmission cycle of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 13 7 e0007594 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Roberta Iatta Tommaso Furlanello Vito Colella Viviana Domenica Tarallo Maria Stefania Latrofa Emanuele Brianti Paolo Trerotoli Nicola Decaro Eleonora Lorusso Bettina Schunack Guadalupe Mirò Filipe Dantas-Torres Domenico Otranto A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Though scantly investigated, Leishmania infantum infection and clinical cases of leishmaniasis in cats have been recently reported in several countries of the Mediterranean basin, with large variability in prevalence data. A major limitation in the comparability of the data available is attributed to the differences in diagnostic techniques employed and cat populations sampled. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of L. infantum infection in owned cats across Italy by serological and molecular tests and the identification of potential risk factors. Blood samples from 2,659 cats from northern (n = 1,543), central (n = 471) and southern (n = 645) Italy were tested for antibodies against L. infantum, by an immunofluorescence antibody test and for the parasites' DNA, by real-time PCR. Samples were additionally screened for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) proviral DNAs. An overall cumulative L. infantum prevalence of 3.9% was recorded by serology (3.3%) and/or qPCR (0.8%), with a higher rate (10.5%) in southern Italy. The risk of L. infantum infection in cats was significantly associated to the geographical areas (South vs North and Centre; p<0.0001), age class (from 19 months to 6 years old vs ≤18 months old, p = 0.0003), neutering status (not neutered vs neutered, p = 0.0028) and FIV infection (p = 0.0051).Though the role of cats in the epidemiology of L. infantum is still debated, our findings indicate that cats are exposed to and/or infected by this protozoan, mainly in endemic regions of Italy. Hence, a standardization of procedures for a prompt diagnosis of L. infantum infection in cats and for screening cat population is crucial for a better understanding of the epidemiology of feline leishmaniasis, and of the potential role of cats in the transmission cycle of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Roberta Iatta Tommaso Furlanello Vito Colella Viviana Domenica Tarallo Maria Stefania Latrofa Emanuele Brianti Paolo Trerotoli Nicola Decaro Eleonora Lorusso Bettina Schunack Guadalupe Mirò Filipe Dantas-Torres Domenico Otranto |
author_facet |
Roberta Iatta Tommaso Furlanello Vito Colella Viviana Domenica Tarallo Maria Stefania Latrofa Emanuele Brianti Paolo Trerotoli Nicola Decaro Eleonora Lorusso Bettina Schunack Guadalupe Mirò Filipe Dantas-Torres Domenico Otranto |
author_sort |
Roberta Iatta |
title |
A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy. |
title_short |
A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy. |
title_full |
A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy. |
title_fullStr |
A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy. |
title_full_unstemmed |
A nationwide survey of Leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in Italy. |
title_sort |
nationwide survey of leishmania infantum infection in cats and associated risk factors in italy. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 https://doaj.org/article/3b5f4f496b6a4fa196bc2a00775934bf |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 13, Iss 7, p e0007594 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 https://doaj.org/article/3b5f4f496b6a4fa196bc2a00775934bf |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007594 |
container_title |
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
e0007594 |
_version_ |
1766345848648630272 |