Investigating Infectious and Zoonotic diseases of Street Dogs in the Residential Area of Bangladesh Agricultural University

Dogs are common carnivor and scavenger at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) campus. Dogs may carry many infectious and zoonotic diseases and could play a role in transmitting those diseases in other carnivors and human as well. At day time cats, dogs and golden jackals are found to eat in a same dustbin at BAU campus. So it is possible to share diseases of each other and there are possibilities of crossing species barrier. This study was, therefore, aimed at specific investigation of the occurrence of leishmaniasis, canine distemper (CD), infectious canine hepatitis (ICH) and avian influenza (AI) of dogs at BAU campus. This study was carried out during the period from January to June/ 2012. A total of 10 apparently healthy dogs were euthanatized and postmortem examination were carried out. Impression smears were prepared from spleen, liver, bone marrow and stained with Giemsa’s stain. Histopathological studies were conducted using routine procedures. For molecular characterization, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Reverse Transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were adopted for the detection of genomic fragment of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), canine distemper (CD), infectious canine hepatitis (ICH) and avian influenza (AI, viral matrix protein gene). Results of this study showed the presence of leishmania organism in the impression smears of eight dogs. Using PCR amplification technique, Leishmania donovani specific genomic DNA (145bp) was detected in two dogs. PCR amplification of genomic DNA of ICH (411bp) and RT-PCR amplification of genomic RNA of CD (287bp) and matrix protein gene of AI (245bp) were not detected in any of the dogs of BAU campus. Future work is needed to explore the presence of snad flies (vector of VL) in the investigating areas and establish role of street dogs of BAU campus towards disseminating leishmaniasis in other animals and human beings.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjvm.v13i1.23720Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2015). 13 (1): 57-63