Canine Chagas Disease – A HIDDEN THREAT? a DeaDly CarDiaC Disease spreaD by kissing bugs aCross the southern half of the uniteD states
by Carolyn l. hoDo, DVM, DACVP; PhD student; raChel Curtis-robles, PhD student; sarah a hamer, PhD, DVM; Assistant Professor Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; anita m. lopker, MD, Private Practice in Medicine & Psychiatry, Westport, CT; Health Chair, Japanese Chin Club of America, Inc.
Background C hagas disease, caused by the microscopic parasite Try- panosomacruzi, is common throughout Latin America and is increasingly recognized as both a human and an animal health concern across the southern United States. The most common manifestation of Chagas disease in both humans and dogs is car- diac disease and resulting heart failure. It is estimated that 6-8 million people worldwide and 300,000 people living in the United States are currently infected with the T. cruzi parasite (Bern et al., 2011). Many of these infected people in the United States are thought to have acquired the infection in Latin Ameri- ca, but there are a growing number of documented cases of local transmis- sion. Chagas disease is not new to the United States; the first report of locally- acquired Chagas disease in the United States was in 1955 in an infant in Cor- pus Christi, TX, and the first canine case was diagnosed in Texas in 1972. However, there has been an increase
Texas A&M) reporting difficulties they face with Chagas disease in their dogs, and some have had to shut down their breeding kennels because of significant losses of dogs, including puppies and breeding females, to the disease. How is tHe disease spread? The Chagas parasite is transmit- ted by insects commonly known as kissing bugs (see Fig. 1). Kissing bugs, also known as cone-nose, reduviid, or triatomine bugs, are large (up to one
in reports of locally acquired disease in humans and dogs in recent years; and while much of this may be due to increased surveillance, reporting, and education about the disease, further studies are needed to determine and characterize local preventable factors contributing to the increasing reports of locally acquired Chagas disease in the United States. How common is tHe disease in dogs in tHe united states? Cases of Chagas disease in dogs have been reported from multiple states across the southern half of the United States and as far north as Virginia (Barr et al., 2009; Bern et al., 2011). During 2013- 2014, there were 351 Chagas posi- tive dogs reported in Texas (TX DSHS website). A survey of dogs in shelters across Texas found that on average nearly 10% of the dogs sampled had antibodies to the Chagas parasite (Ten- ney et al, 2014). A number of dog breed- ers and trainers in Texas have reached out to our research lab (Hamer lab,
figure 1. three species of kissing bugs from texas. from left to right: triatoma sanguisuga, t. gerstaeckeri, and t. protracta. scale bar, 1 inch. (photo by Dr. gabriel hamer)
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