The pathogen transmission dynamics in bat reservoirs underpin efforts to reduce risks to human health and enhance bat conservation, but are notoriously challenging to resolve. For vampire bat rabies, the geographical scale of enzootic cycles, whether environmental factors modulate baseline risk, and how within-host processes affect population-level dynamics remain unresolved. We studied patterns of rabies exposure using an 11-year, spatially replicated sero-survey of 3709 Peruvian vampire bats and co-occurring outbreaks in livestock. Seroprevalence was correlated among nearby sites but fluctuated asynchronously at larger distances. A generalized additive mixed model confirmed spatially compartmentalized transmission cycles, but no effects of bat demography or environmental context on seroprevalence. Among 427 recaptured bats, we observed long-term survival following rabies exposure and antibody waning, supporting hypotheses that immunological mechanisms influence viral maintenance. Finally, seroprevalence in bats was only weakly correlated with outbreaks in livestock, reinforcing the challenge of spillover prediction even with extensive data. Together our results suggest that rabies maintenance requires transmission among multiple, nearby bat colonies which may be facilitated by waning of protective immunity. However, the likelihood of incursions and dynamics of transmission within bat colonies appear largely independent of bat ecology. The implications of these results for spillover anticipation and controlling transmission at the source are discussed.

El objetivo del estudio fue determinar la importancia de la presencia de canes vagabundos dada por los gobiernos locales de Lima Metropolitana e identificar los planes de control propuestos. El estudio descriptivo involucró a 32 de las 43 municipalidades de Lima Metropolitana que aceptaron participar. Se utilizó el modelo de encuesta realizado por la OIE respecto al control de la población de canes y canes vagabundos. El 90.6% (29) consideraba a los canes vagabundos como un problema en su distrito, siendo la reproducción no controlada el problema más grave. El 58.6% (17) indicó que la comuna no contaba con un plan que aborde la problemática, mientras que 31% (9) contaba con un plan y 10.4% (3) no lo tenía, pero realizaban actividades para enfrentarlo. Los métodos quirúrgicos (esterilizaciones y castraciones) fueron los más mencionados por las autoridades para tratar de controlar la población de canes vagabundos, mientras que la eutanasia solo fue mencionada para casos de enfermedad terminal o agresividad. El 59.4% (19) mencionó que la municipalidad no contaba con presupuesto destinado al área de salud pública veterinaria; asimismo, el presupuesto insuficiente o inexistente (82.1%) y la falta de infraestructura para el desarrollo de actividades (71.4%) fueron las principales limitantes del municipio para abordar la problemática de los canes vagabundos. La información obtenida puede servir para tomar consciencia sobre el impacto de los canes vagabundos en la salud pública y valorar la necesidad de elaborar planes de control que se ajusten a las necesidades y limitaciones de cada distrito.

From 1995 to 2009, 206 cases of dog bites were recorded among hospitalized patients at the Children National Health of, Lima-Peru. The median of age was 4 years, and for hospitalization time was 3 days. Most patients were males (61.7 %). The bites occurred in the house of a third person (39.3 %), on the street (33.5 %), or in the victim's house (27.2 %). A 66.5 % of the bites were provoked and 88.8 % were from animals known to the victim. The dog breed was recognized in 34 % (52.9 % were mongrel dogs). Multiple lesions were identified in 79.1 %, and the most frequently bitten areas were head and neck (79.1 %). Complications were reported in 20.4 % and aesthetic sequelae in 94.7 %.

: Lima, Peru, has not had a case of canine rabies since 1999. However, Lima remains at risk of rabies reintroduction due to the free movement of dogs from nearby rabies-endemic areas. In Latin America, rabies vaccination campaigns must reach 80% of dogs to halt transmission, but estimates of vaccine coverage are often unavailable, unreliable, or inaccurate. Quantifying virus neutralizing antibodies (VNA) allows monitoring of the immunological status of the canine population, evaluation of the degree of humoral protection to the virus, and assessing, partially, the population response to vaccination. We evaluated the dog population’s immunity level against the rabies virus before a mass vaccination campaign in Lima. We collected 141 canine blood samples in the district of Surquillo and quantified rabies virus neutralizing antibody titers using the fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test). We surveyed dogs owners to reconstruct canine vaccination histories. Among dogs previously vaccinated, 73.9% exceeded the seroconversion threshold of > 0.5 IU/mL. Among all dogs, only 58.2% reached the titer limit for seroconversion. Dogs ≤ 1 year old constituted 26.2% of the total canine population and had lower levels of VNA than dogs > 1 year old (χ² = 9.071; P = 0.028). Importantly, dogs vaccinated with single-pathogen vaccines had higher levels of VNA than those who received combined-pathogen vaccines (χ² = 7.721; P = 0.005). We provide an important and timely glimpse to the immunity status of the dog population in urban areas of Lima, a metropolis near a dog rabies–endemic region.

The objective of the study was to describe animal ownership, knowledge and potentially risk practices related to exposure to zoonotic infections among residents of the San Benito settlement, Carabayllo (Lima, Peru). In total, 394 people were surveyed, of which 55.6 and 32.2% of them owned cats and dogs, respectively. One dog was found for every 4.6 people and one cat for every 8.5 people. The estimated life expectancy for dogs was 3.3 years and for cats 3.1 years, being their main utility as companion animal. Among dog owners, 88.6% reported the animals were vaccinated against rabies; 39.9 and 35.6% treated their dog against external and internal parasites, respectively, and with the appropriate frequency (every 3 months approx.); 23.5% performed reproductive control (spay/neuter); 78.7% mentioned that stray dogs represent a problem and 57.9% considered that they had an owner; 22.6% said they have had at least one family member bitten by a dog, resulting in a rate of 5.9% (98/1651) in the study population. Of these, 65.2% mentioned that the dog was not vaccinated or did not know whether they were vaccinated, and 55.1% stated that the injured person resorted to a health service for attention. Moreover, 65.0% said they know of diseases that are transmitted from animals to people. Poultry, rabbits, and guinea pigs were the animals that were raised most frequently in the backyard, mostly for self-consumption. The study offers a baseline for the application of population control and animal ownership programs in this population.

El estudio tuvo como objetivo describir la tenencia de animales de compañía y los conocimientos de zoonosis entre pobladores en el distrito de Bambamarca – Cajamarca, Perú, en 2022. Se realizaron 394 encuestas, siendo 30.5% en la zona urbana (Bambamarca ciudad) y 69.5% en la zona rural (Llaucán, San Juan de Lacamaca, Chala y El Tuco). De los encuestados, 54.8% fueron mujeres, 20.8% contaban con secundaria completa y la edad promedio fue de 39.9 años. El 58.4 y 35.5% de entrevistados aseguraron poseer perros y gatos, respectivamente. La relación persona: perro fue 4:1 y persona: gato de 6.7: 1. El 45.2% de poseedores de canes lo criaban como mascota y el 45% de poseedores de gatos los criaban como controladores de plaga de roedores. El 67.9% de los perros fueron machos y 50.5% de los gatos fueron hembras. La tasa de animales esterilizados fue menor al 4% en ambas especies. En caso de los perros, 54.1% paseaban sin restricción y 31.7% de los gatos se clasificaron como “outdoor”. El 50.3% de tenedores de perros y 69.5% de tenedores de gatos mencionaron realizar desparasitaciones internas, y 45 y 61.5%, respectivamente, desparasitaban externamente de manera regular (al menos cada 3 meses). El 58% de perros y el 12.8% de gatos fueron reportados como vacunados contra la rabia el último año. El desconocimiento del significado del término zoonosis alcanzó al 95.4% de los encuestados; sin embargo, el 90.4% afirmó conocer que los animales podrían transmitir enfermedades a las personas, siendo la más reconocida la rabia (69.8%). Se concluye que es necesario desarrollar campañas de educación sanitaria a fin de que los propietarios de animales de compañía desarrollen una tenencia responsable y evitar de esta forma impactos negativos sobre la salud pública y el bienestar animal.