VL USA (cont)

Jeffrey Shaw jshaw at tba.com.br
Wed Apr 26 13:07:56 BRT 2000


[The comments below are important but do not explain the infection of a
number of foxhounds in New York State or other regions recorded in the past
in    which there is no history of travel to endemic areas- Comment JJS ]


Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 22:06:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: ProMED-mail <promed at promed.isid.harvard.edu>
Subject: PRO/AH> Leishmaniasis, dogs - USA (02)

LEISHMANIASIS, DOGS - USA (02)
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A ProMED- mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>

[see also:
Leishmaniasis, dogs - USA: RFI                         20000422235237]

Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 14:27:32 -0400
From: Ellicott McConnell <eck at shore.intercom.net>


I find it strange that fear of leishmaniasis transmission seems to have
resulted in the cancellation of dog shows in Pennsylvania. To my knowledge,
transmission outside of the laboratory occurs only from the bite of
phlebotomine sandflies. Surely this information is easily available to
those local veterinarians who must have been consulted. For that matter,
Pennsylvania seems an odd location for people to be concerned about
leishmaniasis. If the disease were to occur in dogs in the United States it
would be much more likely to show up in the Southwest.

- --
Ellicott McConnell
e-mail: eck at shore.intercom.net

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[2]
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 21:37:13 +0000
From: Randall Ruble <rruble at home.com>


I may be mistaken as I am not an entomologist, but to the best of my
knowledge there are no sand flies in the continental US and sand flies are
the vector for leishmaniasis.  (References provided below.) 

Dogs are involved as one of the mammalian reservoirs of the
Mediterranean/Central Asian form of leishmaniasis caused by _L. donovani_.
This may be the partial origin of the concern.

Speculatively it might be possible for a dog with an open wound coming in
contact with another dog with an open cutaneous lesion from _Leishmania_
spp.  to contract the disease this way. So it might be conceivable that a
dog from one of the Mediterranean countries visiting the dog show could
carry a minor risk to other dogs. But this risk seems very minimal as most
dogs with any type of wound, illness or any other type of blemish are
usually excluded from the show.

Best of luck trying to convince someone that something doesn't exist. Much
easier to create fear than to allay it.

References:
Beaver PC, Jung RC, Cupp EW (1984) Clinical Parasitology. Lea & Febiger,
Philadelphia, PA p55-77.

Despommier DD, Karapelou JW (1987) Parasite Life Cycles. Springer-Verlag,
NY and Berlin p 12-17.

Goldsmith R, Heyneman D (1989) Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. Appleton
& Lange, Norwalk, CT p276-302.

Warren KS, Mahmoud AAF (1990) Tropical and Geographical Medicine.
McGraw-Hill, NY, p296-308.

- --
Randall Ruble, DVM, MPVM, PhD
e-mail: rruble at home.com
        rpruble at strategicbio.com



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