Acta Tropica 150 (2015) 176–181 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Acta Tropica journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actatropica First detection of Leishmania spp. DNA in Brazilian bats captured strictly in urban areas Fernanda Müller de Oliveira a , Luis Henrique Camargo Costa a , Thainá Landim de Barros a , Pier Kenji Rauschkolb Katsuda Ito a , Fábio Antonio Colombo b , Cristiano de Carvalho a , Wagner André Pedro a , Luzia Helena Queiroz a , Cáris Maroni Nunes a,∗ a UNESP, Univ Estadual Paulista, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Rua Clóvis Pestana, 793, Jd. D. Amélia, Arac ¸ atuba, São Paulo CEP 16050-680, Brazil b UNIFAL, University Federal of Alfenas, Rua Gabriel Monteiro da Silva,700, Centro, Alfenas, Minas Gerais CEP 37130-000, Brazil a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 February 2015 Received in revised form 3 July 2015 Accepted 9 July 2015 Available online 21 July 2015 Keywords: Leishmaniasis Bats qPCR Trypanosoma Reservoir a b s t r a c t Leishmania spp. is a protozoan that maintains its life cycle in domestic and wild animals and it may include bats, a population that has increased in urban environments. This study aimed to investigate the presence of Leishmania spp. in bats captured strictly in urban areas that are endemic for visceral leishmaniasis. The spleen and skin samples of 488 bats from 21 endemic cities in northwestern São Paulo State, Brazil, were tested for the presence of Leishmania kDNA using real-time PCR. Differentiation from Trypanosoma spp. was achieved by amplifying a DNA fragment of the ribosomal RNA gene. The presence of Leishmania spp. kDNA was verified in 23.9% of bats and Trypanosoma spp. DNA was identified in 3.9%. Leishmania species differentiation revealed the presence of Leishmania amazonensis in 78.3% of the bats; L. infantum in 17.4%, and 1 sample (4.3%) showed a mix pattern of L. infantum and L. amazonensis. We also detected, for the first time, L. infantum and L. amazonensis DNA in Desmodus rotundus, the hematophagous bat. The presence of Leishmania spp. DNA in bats strictly from urban areas endemic for visceral leishmaniasis in the State of São Paulo, Brazil indicates that these wild and abundant animals are capable of harboring Leishmania spp. in this new scenario. Due to their longevity, high dispersion capacity and adaptability to synanthropic environments, they may play a role in the maintenance of the life cycle of Leishmania parasites. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Leishmaniasis are transmitted by sandfly vectors and are caused by Leishmania spp., a protozoan of the Trypanosomatidae family that circulates in nature among wild and domestic hosts (Desjeux, 2004) About 1.3 million new cases occur in humans per year, caus- ing up to 30,000 annual deaths (WHO, 2012); thus, it is an important public health problem in many countries, including Brazil. More than 20 species have been described for the Leishma- nia genus (Desjeux, 2004; Boité et al., 2012). In South America, Leishmania are grouped in two subgenera, Leishmania and Viannia, which cause visceral and cutaneous or mucocutaneous leishmani- asis, respectively (Gramiccia and Gradoni, 2005). Many species may act as reservoirs for leishmaniasis, including wild animals, such as rodents, carnivorous, primates and mar- ∗ Corresponding author at: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Rua Clóvis Pestana, 793, Jd. D. Amélia, Arac ¸ atuba, São Paulo CEP 16050-680, Brazil. Fax: +55 1836361352. E-mail address: caris@fmva.unesp.br (C.M. Nunes). supials (Deane and Deane, 1955; Courtenay et al., 1994; Travi et al., 1998; Santiago et al., 2007; Quintal et al., 2010; Roque and Jansen, 2014; Souza et al., 2014). Bats have also been described as a potential reservoir, principally because they have widespread distribution, are highly abundant and are able to adapt to differ- ent environments, including synanthropic ones (Roque and Jansen, 2014; Berzunza-Cruz et al., 2015). Furthermore, they live in caves that present ideal conditions of temperature and humidity for sand- fly vectors (Millán et al., 2014). Bats are infected by several trypanosomatid species mainly from the Trypanosoma genus, including Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease (Funayama and Barreto, 1973; Marcili et al., 2013; Ramirez et al., 2014), by Trypanosoma equiperdum (Molyneux, 1991), as well as Trypanosoma evansi (Silva-Iturriza et al., 2013), Trypanosoma dionisi, Trypanosoma marinkellei (Marcili et al., 2013; Marcili et al., 2013) although the role they play in this protozoan sylvatic cycle also remains unknown. There is a narrow phylogenetic relationship between the species of the Trypanoso- matidae family (Hughes and Piontkivska, 2003) reinforcing the idea that differentiation among the protozoan genera of samples under investigation is important. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2015.07.010 0001-706X/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.