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Tropical Medicine and Health
Article ID: 2014-30

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http://doi.org/10.2149/tmh.2014-30

  Advance Publication  

Short Communications (including case reports)

Survey of Wild Mammal Hosts of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Parasites in Panamá and Costa Rica

Kadir González1), José E. Calzada1), Azael Saldaña1), Chystrie A. Rigg1), Gilbert Alvarado2), Bernal Rodríguez-Herrera2), Uriel D. Kitron3), Gregory H. Adler4), Nicole L. Gottdenker5), Luis Fernando Chaves6) 7), Mario Baldi7)

1) Departamento de Parasitología, Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud (ICGES) 2) Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica 3) Department of Environmental Studies, Emory University 4) University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh 5) Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia 6) Institute of Tropical Medicine (NEKKEN), Nagasaki University 7) Programa de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (PIET), Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional

[Advance Publication] Released 2014/12/06
received 2014/10/23   accepted 2014/11/25

Keywords: zoonotic disease, reservoir, Leishmania spp.

The final version of this article with its full bibliographical information is available. To access the article, click here (Vol. 43 (2014), No. 1 pp. 75-78).


The eco-epidemiology of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) is driven by animal reservoir species that are a source of infection for sand flies that serve as vectors infecting humans with Leishmania spp parasites. The emergence and re-emergence of this disease across Latin America calls for further studies to identify reservoir species associated with enzootic transmission. Here, we present results from a survey of 52 individuals from 13 wild mammal species at endemic sites in Costa Rica and Panama where ACL Mammal hosts have not been previously studied. For Leishmania spp. diagnostics we employed a novel PCR technique using blood samples collected on filter paper. We only found Leishmania spp parasites in one host, the two toed sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni. Our findings add further support to the major role of two toed sloths as an ACL reservoir in Central America.

Copyright © 2014 Japanese Society of Tropical Medicine
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