Seroprevalence of Leishmania sp. Infection in Healthy Horses Housed in Endemic Areas in Tuscany |
| |
Authors: | Micaela Sgorbini Francesca Bonelli Irene Pizzolli Rosalba Tognetti Michele Corazza |
| |
Institution: | 1. Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie via Livornese snc, San Piero a Grado, Italy;2. Libero professionista, Firenze, Italia |
| |
Abstract: | This study carried out an epidemiological survey of seroprevalence of positive immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) results for Leishmania infantum in horses living in Tuscany, where the disease in the dog is endemic and no cases of equine leishmaniasis were observed. Inclusion criteria were (1) horses housed for more than 2 years in endemic areas; (2) horses grazing 24 hours a day outside; and (3) horses living on farms where affected dogs were housed. Two blood samples each were collected from 277 horses from June to October 2011 (T1) and from December 2011 to February 2012 (T2), and IFAT was performed for L. infantum. A dermatologic examination was performed to detect the presence of skin lesions. No animals had skin abnormalities. At T1, 18 of 277 horses had positive results for IFAT, while at the second sampling (T2) 277 of 277 samples were negative. In conclusion, our seroprevalence is lower than that in Spain but higher than that in Greece. Our results suggest the presence of a transient humoral response to L. infantum in horses. |
| |
Keywords: | Horse Anti-Leishmania infantum antibodies Tuscany |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|