Epidemiological survey of leptospirosis in collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu Linnaeus, 1758) in legal breeding sites in some states in the Northeast region, Brazil

Brunna Muniz Rodrigues Falcão,Artur Da Nóbrega Carreiro,Denise Batista Nogueira,Débora Vitória Fernandes De Araújo,Maria Luana Cristiny Rodrigues Silva,Joyce Galvão De Souza,Danilo José Ayres De Menezes,Flávia Teresa Ribeiro Da Costa,Diego Figueiredo Da Costa,Sérgio Santos De Azevedo,Camila De Sousa Bezerra,Annielle Regina Da Fonseca Fernandes,João Augusto Rodrigues Alves Diniz,Severino Silvano Dos Santos Higino

doi:10.33448/rsd-v10i3.13421

Abstract

The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu Linnaeus, 1758) is considered an animal of economic viability for trading and potentially productive for meat, being important the knowledge about the health of this species. Thus, the objective of the research was to carry out a cross-sectional study of leptospirosis in captive collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) from the states of Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Piauí, northeast region of Brazil, using serological and molecular techniques. Serum samples from 48 animals were tested using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) technique. In the samples of vaginal and preputial fluid, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was performed. Four animals (8.3%) were seroreactive for Leptospira sp. with reaction to serogroup Icterohaemorraghiae and negative in PCR. There was association between the occurrence of leptospirosis and the intensive breeding system (odds ratio=63.00; 95%CI=4.3-910.6; P=0.002). The seroreactivity for leptospirosis suggests that, at some point, these animals were infected by sources of infection within the farm itself. It was also possible to observe the importance of knowing the serogroups prevalent in this species in the studied region, which allows the establishment of adequate strategies for its control, thus prioritizing the balance in the human-animal-environment relationship.

Highlights

The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu Linnaeus, 1758) is a medium-sized mammal belonging to the order Artiodactyla, suborder Suiformes and family Tayassuidae (Furtado, 2014)
Collections of vaginal and preputial fluid were made with the aid of sterile swabs, which were stored in microtubes containing 1.5 ml of 0.9 % sodium chloride solution and sent to the Laboratório de Biologia Molecular do Semiárido (BIOMOL/Centro de Saúde e Tecnologia Rural (CSTR)/Universidade Federal de Campina Grande (UFCG)), in Patos, Paraíba, for DNA extraction and subsequent Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
The diagnosis of leptospirosis has already been described in some wild animals, including collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu), from various regions of Brazil and the USA (Luna-Alvarez, Moles-Cervantes, Torres-Barranca & Gual-Sill, 1996; Ito et al, 1998; Jori, Galvez, Mendoza, Cespedes & Mayor, 2009), but this is the first study in the Northeast region of Brazil for this species

Summary

Introduction

The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu Linnaeus, 1758) is a medium-sized mammal belonging to the order Artiodactyla, suborder Suiformes and family Tayassuidae (Furtado, 2014). It is found from the southern United States, throughout Central. America and in much of South America, especially in Brazil, where it is widespread (Margarido & Mangini, 2001; Sonner et al, 2004) It occupies several types of environments, such as tropical or temperate forests, deserts, and swamps, which highlights the euritopic character of this species, what makes these animals have no need for major environmental changes in order to implement a breeding site (Bodmer & Sowls, 1993). The observation and study of animal pathologies enable the understanding of possible interactions with humans, which is of great importance in public health (Albuquerque et al, 2016)

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