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Anti-Sporothrix Antibody Detection in Domestic Cats as an Indicator of a Possible New Occurrence Area for Sporotrichosis in North Brazil

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Abstract

Feline sporotrichosis has emerged as an important public health issue in some countries, especially Brazil. Currently, zoonotic transmission of Sporothrix brasiliensis by domestic cats is the major sporotrichosis spread form throughout this country. Sporotrichosis in Brazil is a good model for the One Health concept application, which connects the environment, human and animal health. Under this thinking, the aim of this study was to investigate the seroprevalence of sporotrichosis in cats from Rolim de Moura, Rondônia, Brazil, using antibody detection by an ELISA test previously validated for human diagnosis. For the standardization of this test, 30 serum samples from cats with proven sporotrichosis and 11 sera from healthy cats were used. The assay showed 87% sensitivity and 100% specificity for the diagnosis of feline sporotrichosis. After the standardization, 202 serum samples from distinct cats from Rolim de Moura were evaluated. The test was positive in 63 (31.19%) cats from the studied area. A multivariate analysis revealed that living far from forest or agricultural areas as well as pure breed animals had higher odds ratios (3.157 and 2.281, respectively) for the presence of detectable levels of anti-Sporothrix antibodies. These results show the applicability of this assay in the detection of anti-Sporothrix antibodies in feline serum samples and point to a putative new occurrence area of urban sporotrichosis dispersing to the North region of Brazil.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the technical team of the Medical Mycology Laboratory, INI/Fiocruz, for providing laboratory support.

Funding

This work was supported, in part, by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [CNPq 302796/2017-7] and Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [FAPERJ E-26/202.527/2019].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Micologia, Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Andréa Reis Bernardes-Engemann, Marcos de Abreu Almeida, Vanessa Brito de Souza Rabello, Mariana Lucy Mesquita Ramos, Rodrigo Almeida-Paes & Rosely Maria Zancopé-Oliveira

  2. Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil

    Ividy Bison & Arthur Willian de Lima Brasil

  3. Laboratório de Biofísica de Fungos, Instituto de Biofísica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal Do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Mariana Lucy Mesquita Ramos

  4. Laboratório de Pesquisa Clínica em Dermatozoonoses em Animais Domésticos, Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas,, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Sandro Antonio Pereira

  5. Departamento de Morfologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil

    Arthur Willian de Lima Brasil

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  1. Andréa Reis Bernardes-Engemann
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  2. Marcos de Abreu Almeida
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Correspondence to Andréa Reis Bernardes-Engemann.

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Bernardes-Engemann, A.R., Almeida, M.A., Bison, I. et al. Anti-Sporothrix Antibody Detection in Domestic Cats as an Indicator of a Possible New Occurrence Area for Sporotrichosis in North Brazil. Mycopathologia 187, 375–384 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11046-022-00644-7

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