Detection of Leishmania infantum in Peripheral Blood Smear and Lymph Node of a Domestic Feline

Authors

  • Tamires Ramborger Antunes Mestranda, Programa de pós-graduação em Ciências Veterinárias, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Campo Grande, MS, Brazil.
  • Renata Armarilha Valençoela Peixoto M.V. Autônoma, especialista em Patologia Clínica Veterinária, Campo Grande.
  • Bruna Brito Oliveira Residente em Patologia Clínica Veterinária, programa profissional em Saúde em Medicina Veterinária (UFMS), Campo Grande.
  • Simone Sorgatto Residente em Patologia Clínica Veterinária, programa profissional em Saúde em Medicina Veterinária (UFMS), Campo Grande.
  • Carlos Alberto do Nascimento Ramos Curso de Medicina Veterinária, da Faculdade de medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FAMEZ) - UFMS, Campo Grande.
  • Alda Izabel de Souza Curso de Medicina Veterinária, da Faculdade de medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FAMEZ) - UFMS, Campo Grande.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22456/1679-9216.83208

Abstract

 Background: Cats can become infected and develop feline visceral leishmaniasis (LVF) and manifest variable clinical signs. The diagnosis of the disease in this species has been made more frequently by means of serological and molecular techniques. Different from what happens with dogs, the use of parasitological analysis of lymph node, in clinical practice, for agent detection in felines are infrequent. Therefore, the aim of this study was to disclose the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in a domestic cat from the blood smear analysis and aspiration cytology of lymph node.

Case: An adult mixed breed queen, from the city of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil was referred for clinical care due to the presence of a nodule, with approximately 4 cm, near the inguinal breast. Other parameters, on physical examination, are within the normal range for the specie. For the investigation, additional tests were requested. Eosinophilia was found in a complete blood count (CBC). The association between macroscopic characteristics and cyto­logical findings allowed the diagnosis of inguinal lymph node hyperplastic. Furthermore, amastigotes of Leishmania sp. were visualized both in the peripheral blood sample and in the analyzed material mass. The diagnosis of visceral leishmani­asis and identification of specie of Leishmania was performed by PCR technique (Polymerase Chain Reaction), from the detection of genetic material from Leishmania infantum. After diagnosis of the disease, the owner opted for the conduct of animal euthanasia in the Zoonosis Control Center (CCZ), making impossible the realization of post-mortem examination.

Discussion: Hematologic changes described for cats with feline visceral leishmaniasis may be absent or multiple and vari­able, such as for example, anemia, agglutination of erythrocytes, leukocytosis, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia, however, isolated eosinophilia, identified in this report, has not been observed by other authors. The viewing of the amastigote forms in blood smears is considered unusual. A study in which there were examined 1438 samples of dogs, the agent detection did not exceed 0.28%. In cats, there is only one report, of a pancytopenic feline, describing this finding and corroborates for the rarity of the observation of amastigote forms in peripheral blood feline of this report. The use of serologic and mo­lecular methods for the diagnosis of disease in felids has been most frequently used, however, high titers of anti-Leishmania antibodies associated with protective humoral immune response and degenerated genetic material of the amastigotes can be detected by PCR techniques, not identifying active infection. The parasitological diagnosis by means of cytological evaluation of lymph nodes is fast, low cost, presents high specificity and is frequently used in research of canine visceral leishmaniasis, however, the use of this technique for the diagnosis of the disease in cats is still restricted to academic environment. The identification of amastigotes in peripheral blood and lymph nodes, detected in this study, indicates the possibility of using the blood test and, especially, the cytological examination of lymph node for parasitological research of feline visceral leishmaniasis and highlights the need of studies to determine the sensitivity of these tests in this species.

Keywords: cat, diagnosis, leishmaniasis, complete blood count, cytology.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bonates A. 2003. Leishmaniose visceral (calazar). Veterinary News. 61(10): 4-5.

Bresciani K.D.S., Serrano A.C.M., Matos L.V.S., Savani E.S.M.M., D’Auria S.R.N., Perri S.H.V., Bonello F.L., Coelho W.M.D., Aoki A.G. & Costa A.J. 2010. Ocorrência de Leishmania spp. em felinos do município de Araçatuba, SP. Revista Brasileira de Parasitologia Veterinária. 19(2):127-129.

Chatzis M.K., Andreadou M., Leontides L., Kasabalis D., Mylonakis M., Koutinas A.F., Rallis T., Ikonomopoulos J. & Saridomichelakis M.N. 2014. Cytological and molecular detection of Leishmania infantum in different tissues of clinically normal and sick cats. Veterinary Parasitology. 202(3-4): 217-225.

Coelho W.M.D., de Lima V.M.F., do Amarante A.F.T., Langoni H., Pereira V.B.R., Abdelnour A. & Bresciani K.D.S. 2010. Occurrence of Leishmania (Leishmania) chagasi in a domestic cat (Felis catus) in Andradina, São Paulo, Brazil: case report. Revista Brasileira de Parasitologia Veterinária. 19(4): 256-258.

Cortes S., Rolão N., Ramada J. & Campino R. 2004. PCR as a rapid and sensitive tool in the diagnosis of human and canine leishmaniasis using Leishmania donovani s.l.-specific kinetoplastid primers. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 98(1): 12-17.

Costa T.A.C., Rossi C.N., Laurenti M.D., Gomes A.A.D., Vides J.P., Vicente Sobrinho L.S. & Marcondes M. 2010. Ocorrência de leishmaniose em gatos de área endêmica para leishmaniose visceral. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Research and Animal Science. 47(3): 213-217.

Ennas F., Calderone S., Caprì A. & Pennisi M.A. 2012. Un caso di Leishmaniosi felina in Sardegna. Veterinaria. 26(2): 55-59.

Giudice E. & Passantino A. 2011. Detection of Leishmania amastigotes in peripheral blood from four dogs – short communication. Acta Veterinaria Hungarica. 59(2): 205-213.

Hervás J., de Lara F.C.-M., Sánchez-Isarria M.A., Pellicer S., Carrasco L., Castilho J.A. & Gómez-Villamandos J.C. 1999.Two cases of feline visceral and cutaneous leishmaniosis in Spain. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 1(2): 101-105.

Laurenti M.D. 2009. Correlação entre o diagnóstico parasitológico e sorológico na leishmaniose visceral americana canina. Boletim Epidemiológico Paulista. 6(67): 13-23.

Leiva M., Lloret A., Peña T. & Roura X. 2005. Therapy of ocular and visceral leishmaniasis in a cat. Veterinary Ophthalmology. 8(1): 71-75

Maia C. & Campino L. 2011. Can domestic cats be considered reservoir hosts of zoonotic leishmaniasis? Trends in Parasitology. 27(8): 341-344.

Marcos R., Santos M., Malhão F., Pereira R., Fernandes A.C., Montenegro L. & Roccabianca P. 2009. Pancytopenia in a cat with visceral leishmaniasis. Veterinary Clinical Pathology. 38(2): 201-205.

Martín-Sánches J., Acedo C., Muñoz-Perez M., Pesson B., Marchal O. & Morillas-Márquez F. 2007. Infection by Leishmania infantum in cats: Epidemiological study in Spain. Veterinary Parasitology. 145(3-4): 267-273.

Migliazzo A., Vitale F., Calderono S., Puleio R., Binanti D. & Abramo F. 2014. Feline leishmaniosis: a case with a high parasitic burden. Veterinary Dermatology. 26(1): 68-70.

Noé P., Domingos S.L., Oshiro E.T., Lima R.B., Pirmez C., Pedroso T.C. & Babo-Terra V.J. 2015. Detection of Leishmania chagasi in cats (Felis catus) from visceral leishmaniasis endemic area in Brazil. Ciência Animal. 25(4): 3-14

Ozon C., Marty P., Pratlong F., Breton C., Blein M., Lelièvre A. & Haas P. 1998. Disseminated feline leishmaniosis due to Leishmania infantum in southern France. Veterinary Parasitology. 75(2-3): 273-277.

Pennisi M.G., Venza M., Reale S., Vitale F. & Giudice S.L. 2004. Case report of leishmaniasis in four cats. Veterinary Research Communications. 28(1): 363-366.

Pennisi M.G., Cardoso S., Baneth G., Bourdeau P., Koutinas A., Miró G., Oliva G. & Solano-Gallego L. 2015. LeishVet update and recommendations on feline leishmaniosis. Parasites & Vectors. 8: 302-320.

Poli A., Abramo F., Barsotti P., Leva S., Gramiccia M., Ludovisi, A. & Mancianti F. 2002. Feline leishmaniosis due to Leishmania infantum in Italy. Veterinary Parasitology. 106(3): 181-191.

Prina E., Roux E., Mattei D. & Mion G. 2007. Leishmania DNA is rapidly degraded following parasite death: an analysis by microscopy and real-time PCR. Microbes and Infection. 9(11): 1307-1315.

Rangel E.F. & Vilela M.L. 2008. Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera, Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) and urbanization of visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil. Caderno de Saúde Pública. 24(12): 2948-2952.

Saridomichelakis M.N., Mylonakis M.E., Leontides L.S., Koutinas A.F., Billinis C. & Kontos V.I. 2005. Evaluation of lymph node and bone marrow cytology in the diagnosis of canine leishmaniasis (Leishmania infantum) in symptomatic and asymptomatic dogs. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 73(1): 82-86.

Soares C.S.A., Duarte S.C. & Sousa S.R. 2016. What do we know about feline leishmaniosis? Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 18: 1-9.

Sobrinho L.S.V., Rossi C.N., Vides J.P., Braga E.T., Gomes A.A.D., Lima V.M.F., Perri S.H.V., Generoso D., Langoni H., Leutenegger C., Biondo A.W., Laurenti M.D. & Marcondes M. 2012. Coinfection of Leishmania chagasi with Toxoplasma gondii, Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) in cats from an endemic area of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis. Veterinary Parasitology. 187(1-2): 302-306.

Solano-Gallego L., Miró G., Koutinas A., Cardoso L., Pennisi M.G., Ferrer Luis, Bourdeau P., Oliva G. & Baneth G. 2011. LeishVet guidelines for the practical management of canine leishmaniosis. Parasites & Vectors. 4: 01-16.

Stockham, S.L. & Scott M.A. 2011. Leucócitos. In: Fundamentos de Patologia Clínica Veterinária. 2.ed. Rio de Ja-neiro: Guanabara Koogan, pp.45-89.

Vides J.P., Schwardt T.F., Sobrinho L.S.V., Marinho M., Laurenti M.D., Biondo A.W., Leutenegger C. & Mar¬condes M. 2011. Leishmania chagasi infection in cats with dermatologic lesions from an endemic area of visceral leishmaniosis in Brazil. Veterinary Parasitology. 178(1-2): 22-28.

Published

2016-01-01

How to Cite

Antunes, T. R., Peixoto, R. A. V., Oliveira, B. B., Sorgatto, S., Ramos, C. A. do N., & de Souza, A. I. (2016). Detection of Leishmania infantum in Peripheral Blood Smear and Lymph Node of a Domestic Feline. Acta Scientiae Veterinariae, 44(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.22456/1679-9216.83208

Issue

Section

Case Report

Most read articles by the same author(s)