The aim of this study was to verify the seroprevalence of anti-Leptospira, anti-Toxoplasma and anti-Leishmania antibodies in sera of the dogs from Ubatuba, and the influence of some epidemiological variables in the involved diseases.

The sera samples of 205 animals were submitted to the microscopic agglutination test (MAT), to identify anti-Leptospira agglutinins, according to Healthy Ministry from Brazil (Brasil, 1995), and the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT), to anti-Toxoplasma and anti-Leishmania agglutinins, according to Camargo (1974), considering positive to toxoplasmosis up to 1:64 and, to leishmaniasis, up to 1:40. In the positive cases, some epidemiological variables were studied, like breed, age, sex, access to street, ingestion of homely food and to not-treated water, and the presence of rodents. For the statistical analysis was used the logistic regression analysis, using Instat 3 program, with = 0,05.

For Leptospira spp, 30/205 (14, 63%) samples reacted, similar to Lilenbaum et al. (2000) with 34/185 (18,4%) reacted animals. The serovar pyrogenes was the most prevalent (23, 33%), followed by autumnalis (20%) and canicola (16, 67%). Of 204, 52 (25, 49%) samples reacted to toxoplasmosis, which disagrees to Brito et al. (2002), with 32,5% in 80 animals. No one sample was positive to leishmaniasis. There was not significative statistical difference to anyone epidemiological variable when associated to the results of MAT (p>0,05). In other hand, to the results to toxoplasmosis were observed significative difference related to the age and the access to the street (p<0,05), where the animals with 0-4 years old (51,1%) and those that did not have access to the street (77,1%) were positive.

By the serological results and them association with the epidemiological variables studied, we can affirm that both leptospirosis and toxoplasmosis are present in Ubatuba, a seaside village in the State of São Paulo, being necessary some basic sanitation measures, sanitary education and conscientization of the community about the importance of the food quality and sanity.

References

1.  Brasil. Ministério da Saúde. Fundação Nacional de Saúde. Centro Nacional de Epidemiologia. Coordenação de Controle de Zoonoses e Animais Peçonhentos. Manual de Leptospirose. 2.ed. Brasília, 1995, 98p.

2.  Camargo, M.E. Introdução às técnicas de imunofluorescência. Rev. Bras. Patol. Clin., v.10, p.143-169, 1974.

3.  Lilenbaum, W. et al. Aglutininas antileptospiras em caninos do município amazônico de Oriximirá-Pará, Brasil. R. Bras. Ci. Vet., v.7, n.3, p.133-135, 2000.

4.  Brito, A.F. et al. Epidemiological and Serological Aspects in Canine Toxoplasmosis in Animals with Nervous Symptoms. Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz, v.97, n.1, p.31-35, 2002.