Identificación de parvovirus canino tipo 2C en cachorros de Nicaragua

Objetivo. Identificar los genotipos de parvovirus canino-circulantes en cachorros en dos municipios de Nicaragua. Materiales y métodos. Se recolectaron muestras por hisopado rectal de 45 cachorros con y sin antecedentes de vacunación, con menos 6 meses de edad, con y sin sintomatología compatible con parvovirosis. Las muestras y dos de las vacunas que se comercializan en Nicaragua (vacuna nº1 y vacuna nº2) fueron analizadas por Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa (PCR) convencional para un producto de ˜ 630 pb del gen VP2. Además, se secuenciaron en sentido inverso cuatro muestras de campo elegidas al azar y ambas cepas de vacunas. Resultados. El 28.9% (13/45) de las muestras analizadas fueron positivas en PCR. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en la detección por PCR del fragmento de VP2, respecto al estado de vacunación de los animales (p=0.05). Las cuatro muestras de campo secuenciadas fueron identificadas como genotipo CPV-2C y las dos cepas vacunales se identificaron como genotipo CPV-2A. Conclusiones. La inferencia evolutiva de las secuencias alineadas de cepas vacunales mostró alta divergencia evolutiva respecto a las cepas de campo. Este hallazgo lleva a replantear el tema sobre la eficacia de las vacunas analizadas en este trabajo y que son aplicadas en Nicaragua. Objective. To identify genotypes of canine parvovirus circulating in puppies in two municipalities of Nicaragua. Materials and methods. Rectal swab samples from 45 puppies less under 6 months of age were collected and processed for presence of parvovirus bur conventional PCR technique. Puppies might or not have been vaccinated and with or without parvovirus infection symptoms. Two commercially available parvovirus vaccines in Nicaragua (vaccine no1 and vaccine no2) were also analyzed by conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) resulting in a product of approximate to 630 bp of the VP2 gene. In addition, Sanger sequences of four randomly chosen field samples and both vaccine strains were obtained. Results. 28.9% (13/45) of the analyzed samples were positive by PCR, for CPV VP2 gene. No statistically significant differences (p >= 0.05) were obtained in PCR detection between dogs with or without vaccination history. The four sequenced field samples were identified as CPV-2C genotype while both vaccine strains were identified as CPV-2A genotype. Conclusions. The aligned sequences showed high evolutionary divergence of filed strains with respect to vaccines strains, leading us to reconsider the efficacy of the analyzed vaccines commercially available in Nicaragua nowadays

A cross-sectional epidemiological study of domestic animals related to human leptospirosis cases in Nicaragua

Leptospirosis is one of the most extended zoonosis worldwide and humans become infected most commonly through contact with the urine of carrier animals, either directly or via contaminated water or soil. The aim in this study was to analyse the epidemiological behaviour of Leptospira spp., from domestic animals around the sites of human leptospirosis cases in Nicaragua, from 2007 through 2013. We report the results of a cross-sectional epidemiological study with a non-probability sampling of blood (n = 3050) and urine (n = 299) from Domestic Animals (DA) around the sites of human leptospirosis cases in Nicaragua. We analysed data obtained through Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT), in-vitro culture, real time PCR and sequencing of lfb1 locus. Frequencies of 30.31% (95% CI: 28.66–31.95) and 15.38% (95% CI: 11.12–19.64) were obtained from serological test and from in-vitro culture, respectively. Although similar frequencies from serology test (P = 0.05) were found in DA species, in-vitro culture frequencies were significantly higher from bovine, equine and sheep (P < 0.05) in comparison with swine and canine species. Ten serogroups of pathogenic Leptospira spp. were encountered, with the highest presence of Icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup 34.65% (95% CI: 29.35–39.94). We identified 7 samples homologous to L. interrogans species Pyrogenes serovar and 3 samples as L. noguchii Louisiana or Panama serovars by analysis of lfb1 sequences. We were able to establish a temporal and spatial correlation from DA and cumulative incidence of human cases. Therefore an effective epidemiological surveillance should be implemented with a specific control program toward DA in order to reduce human leptospirosis incidence

Detection of Pathogenic Leptospires in Water and Soil in Areas Endemic to Leptospirosis in Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, there are ideal environmental conditions for leptospirosis. The objective of this investigation was to detect pathogenic and saprophytic leptospires in water and soil samples from leptospirosis-endemic areas in Nicaragua. Seventy-eight water and 42 soil samples were collected from houses and rivers close to confirmed human cases.Leptospiraspp was isolated in Ellinghausen-McCullough-Johnson-Harris (EMJH) culture medium with 5-fluororacil and positive samples were analyzed through PCR for theLipL32gene, specific for pathogenic leptospires (P1 clade). There were 73 positive cultures from 120 samples, however only six of these (5% of all collected samples) were confirmed to be pathogenic, based on the presence of theLipL32gene (P1 clade). Of these six pathogenic isolates, four were from Leon and two from Chinandega. Four pathogenic isolates were obtained from water and two from soil. This study proved the contamination of water and soil with pathogenic leptospires, which represents a potential risk for public health