CIENCIASMEDICASNEWS: Ahead of Print - Leishmaniasis in Norway Rats in Sewers, Barcelona, Spain - Volume 25, Number 6—June 2019 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal

sábado, 11 de mayo de 2019

Ahead of Print - Leishmaniasis in Norway Rats in Sewers, Barcelona, Spain - Volume 25, Number 6—June 2019 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC

Leishmaniasis in Norway Rats in Sewers, Barcelona, Spain

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Maria Teresa Galán-Puchades

, Mercedes Gómez-Samblás, Jose M. Suárez-Morán, Antonio Osuna, Joan Sanxis-Furió, Jordi Pascual, Rubén Bueno-Marí, Sandra Franco, Víctor Peracho, Tomás Montalvo, and Màrius V. Fuentes

Author affiliations: Universitat de València, Burjassot-Valencia, Spain (M.T. Galán-Puchades, J. Sanxis-Furió, M.V. Fuentes); Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain (M. Gómez-Samblás, J.M. Suárez-Morán, A. Osuna); Laboratorios Lokímica, Catarroja-Valencia, Spain (J. Sanxis-Furió, R. Bueno-Marí); Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (S. Franco, V. Peracho, T. Montalvo); CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health, Barcelona (T. Montalvo)

Abstract

We detected Leishmania infantum in 98 Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) trapped in parks and sewers of Barcelona, Spain. The 84 rats from the sewers showed a prevalence of 33.3% and up to 2,272 estimated parasites. These results, in the most abundant potential reservoir in cities, is of public health concern.

Canine and human leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania infantum is considered an emerging disease in the Mediterranean basin (1). In addition to dogs, several wild mammals have been found infected by L. infantum in rural environments in Europe (2). With regard to the epidemiologic factors promoting infection with Leishmania, the appearance of new animal reservoirs besides dogs has been highlighted (1). In this context, only a few studies examine the possible reservoir role of synanthropic animals in cities, where the role of certain domestic mammals has been analyzed exclusively (1).

Because human leishmaniasis is endemic in Barcelona, Spain (3), we investigated and quantified the presence of L. infantum in an urban population of the Norway rat, Rattus norvegicus, using a highly sensitive quantitative PCR (qPCR) method for Leishmania DNA detection. Rat leishmaniasis could complicate the epidemiologic situation of human and canine leishmaniasis, considering that the Norway rat is the most widespread mammal in the world after humans and also the most abundant animal in cities.

We trapped 98 Norway rats, 84 in the sewage system and 14 in parks, during the winter of 2016–17 in a rodent surveillance and control program in Barcelona (permission no. SF/044 obtained from the regional government of Catalonia). We treated the rats according to Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and Council decision of September 22, 2010. We obtained DNA from 10 mg of spleen using the Purification of Total DNA kit (QIAGEN, https://www.qiagen.com), following the manufacturer’s instructions. We processed the samples whose DNA concentration was too low with the extraction kit by the phenol–chloroform–isoamyl (25:24:1) DNA extraction technique. We quantified the parasite DNA by qPCR using Taqman probe with Fam fluorochrome (4).