Prevalência de Leishmania spp. em cães assintomáticos atendidos pelo programa de castração voluntária no hospital veterinário da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia.

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a zoonotic potential of a peculiar character in rural areas and urban centers. It is a disease of difficult control and great focus in veterinary medicine, responsible for serious clinical manifestations, being the diagnosis fundamental for the establishment of appropriate prognosis and treatment and prevention of new cases. The detection of DNA from the parasite helps in the diagnosis and allows the treatment more rapid and adequate, thus allowing the improvement of the quality of life of the animal, besides minimizing the possibility of becoming a reservoir of the disease. In this work, a study of the positivity rate was performed in asymptomatic animals of different ages, both sexes and all races, for leishmaniasis treated by the voluntary castration program of the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Uberlândia (HVET-UFU) from August to November 2017. Fifty blood samples were collected, and the DNA detection for the genus of the parasite was performed by PCR directed to the gene that encodes the 70kDA heat shock enzyme and another to the internal transcribed spacer region of the ribosomal RNA gene. From this analysis, the positivity of 26% of the animals was verified for both pairs of primers, indicating a probable infection by the parasite, without racial, sexual or age predisposition.