Artículos de revistas
Rocky mountain spotted fever in dogs, Brazil
Fecha
2009Registro en:
Emerging Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, v. 15, n. 3, p. 458-460, 2009
1080-6040
10.3201/eid1503.081227
1080-6059
Autor
LABRUNA, Marcelo Bahia
KAMAKURA, Orson
MORAES-FILHO, Jonas
HORTA, Maurício Cláudio
PACHECO, Richard de Campos
Institución
Resumen
Clinical illness caused by Rickettsia rickettsii in dogs has been reported solely in the United States. We report 2 natural clinical cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in dogs in Brazil. Each case was confirmed by seroconversion and molecular analysis and resolved after doxycycline therapy.
Rickettsia rickettsii, the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), is the most pathogenic of the rickettsiae for humans and some animals. RMSF has been reported in North, Central, and South America, where different tick species serve as vectors(FN1). Although serologic studies among healthy dogs in Brazil have indicated past infection by R. rickettsii(FN2,3), clinical illness caused by R. rickettsii in dogs has been reported solely in the United States(FN4,5).
In Brazil, the most common vector-borne disease of dogs is canine monocytic ehrlichiosis (CME), caused by Ehrlichia canis(FN6). Clinical signs (fever, depression, petechial hemorrhages, thrombocytopenia) in dogs with overt RMSF infection or CME are often similar(FN5). Doxycycline is the treatment of choice for R. rickettsii infection in dogs(FN7) and the most commonly prescribed treatment for CME in Brazil. Thus, clinical cases of RMSF among dogs in Brazil could be being misdiagnosed as CME. We describe 2 natural cases of RMSF in dogs in Brazil