Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: JANILENE DE OLIVEIRA NASCIMENTO

EVALUATION OF THE PARASITIC LOAD AND PROFILE IN THE PRODUCTION OF ANTIBODIES IN 

THERAPEUTIC MONITORING IN DOGS WITH NATURAL INFECTION BY Leishmania infantum

 Canine leishmaniasis; treatment; polymerase chain reaction; fluoroquinolone.

Visceral leishmaniasis is a cosmopolitan parasitic disease that affects wild and domestic animals and humans. In Brazil, transmission occurs mainly through the bite of sandflies of the genus Lutzomyia and the dog is the main vector in urban environments. In these patients, the disease is systemic and chronic and is asymptomatic or symptomatic with variable signs, a fact that results in a diagnosis that is often complex. The use of anti-Leishmania drugs in dogs has been a challenge for the veterinarian, as it is a continuous, costly treatment and often with limited therapeutic options, so alternative therapies such as marbofloxacin have also been described. Twenty-six domestic dogs infected with Leishmania infantum, of both sexes, of different breeds and aged between one and seven years, attended at the outpatient service of the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE) were used. The animals were divided into two treatment groups: Group 1 (G1: 15 animals) treated with marbofloxacin (Marbopet® CEVA Laboratory, Brazil) at a dose of 2mg/kg/day PO for 28 days and allopurinol at a dose of 10mg/kg BID PO for 180 days and Group 2 (G2: 11 animals) treated with miltefosine (Miltefora® VIRBAC Laboratory, Brazil) at the same dosage of marbo floxacin. Dogs in both groups were clinically monitored on days zero, which is the start of treatment (D0), 30 days (D30), 90 days (D90) and 180 (D180) days after treatment. In G1 (D0), the mean number of parasites/μL in the bone marrow was 239,267 with a median of 13,792 parasites/μL. In the miltefosine group, the mean was 965,795.1 parasites/μL with a median of 117.8 parasites/μL. Animals from G1 and G2 showed 86.6% and 45.4% reduction in clinical scores in the first three months, respectively. Recurrence of clinical signs was observed in 9.1% of G2. At the end of treatment, the average reduction in the clinical score in G1 was 61.3% and 22.3% in G2. Antibody titers decreased by 93.3% with the use of marbofloxacin and allopurinol, against 63.6% using only miltefosine at the end of treatment (Graph 1). However, there was no statistical difference (X2 = 0.016; p = 0.8982). The use of marbofloxacin associated with allopurinol proved to be a new therapeutic option to be used in the therapeutic protocol for canine leishmaniasis, but it must be used in a balanced way, since this drug is a third-generation fluoroquinolone used in several other conditions. New studies may demonstrate the reduction of infectivity in dogs treated with this protocol.