Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T03:49:10.737Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Infrequency of gross skin lesions among Panamanian forest mammals with cutaneous leishmaniasis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Aristides Herrer  and
Howard A. Christensen
Aristides Herrer
Affiliation:
Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, Apartado 6991, Panamá 5, República de Panamá
Howard A. Christensen
Affiliation:
Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, Apartado 6991, Panamá 5, República de Panamá
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Natural leishmanial infections among feral mammals in the Republic of Panama were studied in relation to gross skin alterations. Three dermatotropic species of Leishmania, L. braziliensis, L. mexicana and L. hertigi, isolated from 230 sylvatic animals of 5 mammalian orders were involved. In 205 (89%) of the cases there were no gross skin alterations. Cryptic infections of all three leishmanial species among wild animals were confirmed by culture and hamster inoculation. This type of infection was always present in the sloths, Choloepus hoffmanni and Bradypus infusatcus, infected with L. braziliensis and in the porcupine, Coendou rothschildi, infected with L. hertigi. Suggestive skin alterations were encountered in 10 (4%) of infected animals. Only 15 (7%) of infected animals exhibited typical leishmanial lesions. It was possible to correlate skin depigmentation with the course of leishmanial infection in one animal, a young kinkajou, Potos flavus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , August 1975 , pp. 87 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ashford, R. W., Bray, M. A., Hutchinson, M. P. & Bray, R. S. (1973). The epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Ethiopia. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 67, 568–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brumpt, E. & Pedroso, A. (1913). Pesquisas epidemiologicas sobre a leishmaniose americana das florestas no Estado de Sao Paulo (Brasil). Annaes Paulistas de Medicina e Cirurgia 1, 97–136.Google Scholar
Gorgas Memoriai Laboratory, Annual Report For 1956. U.S. Govt Printing Office, 1957.Google Scholar
Herrer, A. (1951). Estudios sobre leishmaniasis tegumentaria en el Perú. V. Leishmaniasis natural en perros procedentes de localidades utogenas. Revista de Medicina Experimental (Lima) 8, 87–118.Google Scholar
Herrer, A., Thatcher, V. E. & Johnson, C. M. (1966). Natural infections of Leishmania and trypanosomes demonstrated by skin culture. Journal of Parasitology 52, 954–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herrer, A., Telford, S. R. Jr & Christensen, H. A. (1971). Enzootic cutaneous leishmaniasis in eastern Panama. I. Investigation of the infection among forest mammals. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 65, 349–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herrer, A., Christensen, H. A. & Beumer, R. J. (1973). Reservoir hosts of cutaneous leishmaniasis among Panamanian forest mammals. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 22, 585–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lainson, R. & Shaw, J. J. (1974). Las leishmanias y la leishmaniasis del Nuevo Mundo, con particular referencia al Brasil. Boletin Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana 76, 93–114.Google Scholar