Trypanosoma cruzi among wild and domestic mammals in different areas of the Abaetetuba municipality (Pará State, Brazil), an endemic Chagas disease transmission area

The presence of acute Chagas disease (ACD) due to oral transmission is growing and expanding in several South American countries. Within the Amazon basin, the Abaetetuba municipality has been a site of recurrent cases spanning across distinct landscapes. Because Chagas disease is primarily a zoonotic infection, we compared the enzootic Trypanosoma cruzi transmission cycles in three different environmental areas of Abaetetuba to better understand this new epidemiological situation. Philander opossum was the most abundant mammalian species collected (38% of the collected mammals) with a T. cruzi prevalence of 57%, as determined by hemocultures. Didelphis marsupialis was abundant only in the area with the higher level of environmental disturbance (approximately 42%) and did not yield detectable parasitemia. Despite similarities observed in the composition of the small mammalian fauna and the prevalence of T. cruzi infection among the studied areas, the potential of these hosts to infect vectors differed significantly according to the degree of land use (with prevalences of 5%, 41%, and 64% in areas A3, A1 and A2, respectively). Domestic mammals were also found to be infected, and one canine T. cruzi isolate was obtained. Our data demonstrated that the transmission of T. cruzi in the Amazon basin is far more complex than had been previously taught and showed that the probability of humans and domestic mammals coming into contact with infected bugs can vary dramatically, even within the same municipality. The exposure of dogs to T. cruzi infection (indicated by positive serology) was the common feature among the studied localities, stressing the importance of selecting domestic mammals as sentinels in the identification of T. cruzi transmission hotspots.