RESUMO
There are 3 strains of Encephalitozoon cuniculi that occur in mammals. Strain III is associated with clinical disease in dogs, although some can be asymptomatic carriers and excrete spores in their urine. Several cases of human E. cuniculi infection caused by strain III have been observed in immunocompromised patients, indicating that E. cuniculi should be considered a zoonotic agent. Encephalitozoon cuniculi can cause fatal disease in maternally-infected or young dogs. Clinical signs in these animals included blindness, encephalitis, retarded growth rate, and nephritis. Encephalitozoon cuniculi has also been associated with primary renal failure in adult dogs. The present study used the direct agglutination test (DAT, cut-off 1:50) and the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT, cut-off 1:10) to examine the prevalence of antibodies to E. cuniculi in dogs from Brazil and Colombia. Using the DAG, 31 (27.4%) of 113 dogs from Brazil and 47 (18.5%) of 254 dogs from Colombia were seropositive. Nine (14.3%) of 63 dogs from Brazil and 18 (35.3%) of the 51 dogs from Colombia were seropositive by indirect immunofluorescent antibody test. These results indicate that dogs from Brazil and Colombia are exposed to E. cuniculi.
Assuntos
Anticorpos Antifúngicos/sangue , Doenças do Cão/epidemiologia , Encephalitozoon cuniculi/imunologia , Encefalitozoonose/veterinária , Testes de Aglutinação/veterinária , Animais , Brasil/epidemiologia , Linhagem Celular , Colômbia/epidemiologia , Doenças do Cão/microbiologia , Cães , Encefalitozoonose/epidemiologia , Técnica Indireta de Fluorescência para Anticorpo/veterinária , Humanos , Estudos Soroepidemiológicos , Saúde da População Urbana , Zoonoses/microbiologia , Zoonoses/transmissãoRESUMO
Encephalitozoon cuniculi has been associated with natural cases of abortion and stillbirth in horses. However, little is known about the prevalence of this parasite in horses. We examined sera from 559 horses from Brazil for antibodies to E. cuniculi using the indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) test and the direct agglutination test (DAT). We found that 79 (14.1%) were positive in the IFA test and 70 (12.5%) were positive in the DAT. Compared to the IFA as the "gold standard" the sensitivity of the DAG was 94.0% and the specificity was 96.1%. Our study indicates that horses in Brazil are frequently exposed to E. cuniculi.