Detection of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in naturally infected dogs and cats using serological, parasitological and molecular methods.

ENRIQUEZ GF; CARDINAL MV; OROZCO MM; SCHIJMAN AG; GURTLER RE

ACTA TROPICA

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 126 p. 211 - 217

0001-706X

Domestic dogs and cats are major domestic reservoir hosts of Trypanosoma cruzi and a risk factor forparasite transmission. In this study we assessed the relative performance of a polymerase chain reactionassay targeted to minicircle DNA (kDNA-PCR) in reference to conventional serological tests, a rapiddipstick test and xenodiagnosis to detect T. cruzi infection in dogs and cats from an endemic rural areain northeastern Argentina. A total of 43 dogs and 13 cats seropositive for T. cruzi by an immunosorbentassay (ELISA) and an indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA), which had been examined by xenodiagnosis,were also tested by kDNA-PCR. kDNA-PCR was nearly as sensitive as xenodiagnosis for detecting T.cruzi-infectious dogs and cats. kDNA-PCR was slightly more sensitive than xenodiagnosis in seropositivedogs (91% versus 86%, respectively) and cats (77% against 54%, respectively), but failed to detect all ofthe seropositive individuals. ELISA and IHA detected all xenodiagnosis-positive dogs and both outcomeslargely agreed (kappa coefficient,  = 0.92), whereas both assays failed to detect all of the xenodiagnosispositivecats and their agreement was moderate ( = 0.68). In dogs, the sensitivity of the dipstick test was95% and agreed closely with the outcome of conventional serological tests ( = 0.82). The high sensitivityof kDNA-PCR to detect T. cruzi infections in naturally infected dogs and cats supports its application as adiagnostic tool complementary to serology and may replace the use of xenodiagnosis or hemoculture.