Prevalence of canine leishmaniasis in Beichuan County, Sichuan, China and phylogenetic evidence for an undescribed Leishmania sp. in China based on 7SL RNA

Ke Sun,Bin-Bin Yang,Lin Liao,Wang Guan,Jian-Ping Chen,Yu Tian,Jian-Guo Zhang,Ya-Jing Wang,Da-Li Chen

doi:10.1186/1756-3305-5-75

Ke Sun, Bin-Bin Yang + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-5-75

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundLeishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease, which is still endemic in the west and northwest area of China. Canines are the major reservoirs of Leishmania, the etiological agent of human visceral leishmaniasis. Phlebotomus chinensis is the main transmission vector of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL).MethodsIn this study, rK39 dip-stick, ELISA and PCR methods were used to investigate the prevalence of canine leishmaniasis (CanL) in Beichuan County, Sichuan Province, China.ResultsAmong the 86 dogs which were included in the study, 13 dogs were positive using the dip-stick test (15.12%), while 8 dogs were positive using ELISA (9.30%) and 19 dogs were positive for PCR (22.03%). In total, 32 dogs were positive for one or more tests (37.21%). Interestingly, phylogenetic analysis based on the partial 7SL RNA fragment provided evidence that an undescribed Leishmania species, which is clearly a causative agent of CanL and human visceral leishmaniasis, does exist in China. This result is consistent with our previous study.ConclusionsOur work confirmed that canine leishmaniasis is still prevalent in Beichuan County. Further control is urgently needed, as canine leishmaniasis is of great public health importance. The phylogenetic analysis based on 7SL RNA segment provides evidence for the existence of an undescribed Leishmania sp. in China.

Highlights

Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease, which is still endemic in the west and northwest area of China
The diseases are characterized by a spectrum of clinical manifestations: cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) [1]
Results of serological tests, PCR are shown in Table 1. 13 dogs were positive for Dipstick test (15.12%), while 8 dogs were positive for Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test (9.30%) and 19 dogs were positive for PCR (22.03%)

Summary

Introduction

Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease, which is still endemic in the west and northwest area of China. Canines are the major reservoirs of Leishmania, the etiological agent of human visceral leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease caused by different species of the genus Leishmania, including subgenera Viannia and Leishmania. Canines are the major reservoirs of Leishmania, the etiological agent of human visceral leishmaniasis [3,4,5,6,7]. Leishmaniasis is still endemic in China, especially in the west and northwest regions. The prevalence of human leishmaniasis in west China was alarming according to the reports of Wang et al [15] and Qu et al [16]. An undescribed Leishmania species may exist in China, which was reported by Cao et al [17], Yang et al [18]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion