Desjeux, P.

Le Pont, François

Mouchet, Jean

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i Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro 
Vol: 84 (4) :575,  out./dez. 1989 Research Note 
LEISHMANIASIS IN BOLIVIA. VII. INFECTION O F  SENTINEL PORCUPINES 
(COENDOU PREHENSILIS, L.) BY LEISHMANIA (LE.) CHAGASI 
FRANçOIS LE PONT, JEAN MOUCHET i3 PHILIPPE DESJEUX' 
ORSTO?Vf, 70-74 route d'Aulnay, Bondy, France * OMS, PDP/TRY, 121 1 Genève 27, Suisse 
Sentinel animals have been extensively used 
in Peruvian (A. Herrer, 195 1 ,Rex Med. exp., 8: 
87), Panamanian (A. Herrer et al., 1973, Trans. 
R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg., 67: 870-879) and 
Brazilian (A. de C. Gomes et al., 1989, Trans. 
R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg., 83: 193) leishmaniasis 
foci to survey the circulation of the parasites. 
Laboratory and wild rodents, as well as dogs, 
have been used for this purpose. 
A tree porcupine (Coendou prehensilis, L.) 
caught in the Beni plain where visceral leishma- 
niasis does not exist was brought to a village in 
the Yungas, a well-hown focus of Leishmania 
(Le.) chagasi (P. Desjeux et al., 1986,411-419. 
In Leishmania, Taxonomie et Phylogénèse, 
INSERM/CNRS, IMEEE, Montpellier). It was 
kept near houses as a sentinel at an altitude of 
950 m. It was first observed that this animal 
was very attractive for Lutzomyia longipalpis, 
the local vector of visceral leishmaniasis (F. Le 
Pont et P. Desjeux, 1985, Trans. R Soc. Trop. 
Med. Hyg., 79: 227-231). After 18 months, the 
porcupine began to decline and lose its spines. 
It became apathic and, before it could die, it 
was sacrifickd and autopsied. ~ 
Biopsies of the liver and spleen were cultured 
on NNN medium and a strain (MCOE/B0/86/ 
WZ-2019) was identified by isoenzymes as 
L. chagasi. The strain from the porcupine is 
identical, according to biochemical typing, with 
strains isolated from humans, dogs and sandflies 
in this area; all of them correspond to the WHO 
reference strain of L. chagasi, MHOM/BR/74/ 
M-2682. 
Received June 20, 1989. 
Accepted August 16, 1989. 
It is well-known that porcupines, specially 
C. prehensilis (R. Lainson e t  J. J. Shaw, 1977, 
Acta Amaz., 7: 51-57), harbour their own 
species of Leishmania belonging to the henigi 
complex, non pathogenic for them, which can 
be isolated from the viscera. But these former 
data seem sufficient to exclude this specific 
Leishmania in the present case. 
The pre-patent time was long (14 months), 
but similar observations have been made in 
experimental infestations of other animals, e. g. 
the jackal with L. infunmm in Tunisia (J. P. De- 
det, 1971, Epidimiologie de la leishmaniose 
viscimie en Tunisie, ThBse, Montpellier, 163 p.). 
Another sentinel C. prehensilis brought from 
the same area and kept at  the same place died 
with the same symptoms, but for logistic 
reasons the parasite could not be isolated. 
In this village, the L. chagasi circulation 
was high and'most of' the-dogs were dying 
in less than six months, but very few 
human cases have been reported (P. Desjeux 
et al., 1983, Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. 
Hyg., 77: 851-852). The low incidence of J' 
human cases in the Yungas may be indicative of 
asymptomatic infections, as in Brazil (L. M. To- 
ledo et  al., 1983, XIX Congr. Soc. Bras. Med. 
Trop., Rio de Janeiro, Abstr. 134, p. 60) or, 
more probably, of a low man-biting rate of the 
vector. 
' 
O.R.S.T,O.M, Fonds Documentaire 


Leishmaniasis in Bolivia : 7. Infection of sentinel porcupines (Coendou prehensilis, L.) by Leishmania (Le.) chagasi

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