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Date Published: 01/06/2022

ARCHIVED - The dangerous Leishmaniasis disease affects 6 out of 10 dogs in Spain

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Investigators in Barcelona are working to track the genome of this disease, which can be deadly for pets

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - The dangerous Leishmaniasis disease affects 6 out of 10 dogs in Spain

Treatment for leishmaniasis, a disease that progressively attacks different organs of the body, especially in animals, has been stalled for 60 years and now affects six out of ten dogs in Spain, 15% of which have severe symptoms such as skin infections.

Leishmaniasis comprises several disorders caused by Leishmania, a parasite transmitted by a species of mosquito called phlebotomine sandflies, which is present in different regions of the world but mainly infects pets in Mediterranean countries such as Spain.

The disease attacks people, dogs, cats and other animal species, but in the case of dogs the infection is much more frequent and causes different reactions in each animal, so it is difficult to determine in which cases it be serious and in which it won’t.

Read also: Increased number of ticks in Spain 2022 – tick prevention and treatment for pets and humans

This Wednesday, June 1, is World Leishmaniasis Day, and to advance research, a team of scientists from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) have developed a method to sequence the entire genome of Leishmania, determine its resistance to drugs and whether there are subpopulations of the disease in Europe.

“Treatment against leishmaniasis does not completely eliminate the disease, and not continuing research implies the risk of the parasite developing resistance to medication,” explained one of the project’s promoters, Xavier Roura, PhD in Veterinary Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

Which dogs are most likely to get leishmaniasis?

“There are factors in dogs and parasites that determine the severity of the disease, although we have also discovered that the breed of dog is important when it comes to knowing whether it is more or less likely to contract leishmaniasis,” said Roura.

Boxers, Rottweilers and German Shepherds are some of the breeds most likely to be infected by canine Leishmania, while the podenco ibicenco or Ibizan Hound is one of the breeds that is most resistant to the parasite.

What are the symptoms of leishmaniasis in dogs?

Many dogs that contract the disease never develop clinical signs, but others experience a progressive infection that deteriorates different organs.

In these cases, the parasite first attacks the lymphatic system – responsible for directing the immune response – then spreads to the skin, causing numerous skin wounds, and finally reaches internal organs such as the liver and kidneys, which can even lead to the death of the animal.

This is precisely one of the key points of the research: to discover why some animals develop severe cases and others manage to control the disease without symptoms, although scientists are also considering whether there are differences in the Leishmania genome that cause different reactions in affected animals.

There is no cure for Leishmaniasis

“The treatment for leishmaniasis has been in force for approximately 60 years, and the results relatively alleviate the animal’s state of health, because after treatment they improve clinically but remain infected,” said Roura.

Faced with this situation, and while research to combat leishmaniasis continues to stagnate, UAB scientists consider “fundamental” the prevention of the disease by way of vaccination to prevent dogs from becoming infected.

For this reason, the researchers are collaborating with different dog food brands so that prevention and information about leishmaniasis can reach the public directly. Among the ten members involved in the initiative are experts in different areas of biology and veterinary medicine, including clinical veterinarians, bioinformaticians, biochemists and geneticists.

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