Epidemiology and Molecular Typing of Trypanosoma cruzi in Naturally-Infected Hound Dogs and Associated Triatomine Vectors in Texas, USA.

BACKGROUND: Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiologic agent of Chagas disease throughout the Americas. Few population-level studies have examined the epidemiology of canine infection and strain types of T. cruzi that infect canines in the USA. We conducted a cross-sectional study of T. cruzi infection in working hound dogs in south central Texas, including analysis of triatomine vectors collected within kennel environments. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: Paired IFA and Chagas Stat-Pak serological testing showed an overall seroprevalence of 57.6% (n = 85), with significant variation across kennels. Dog age had a marginally significant effect on seropositivity, with one year of age increase associated with a 19.6% increase in odds of being seropositive (odds ratio 95% CI 0.996-1.435; p = 0.055). PCR analyses of blood revealed 17.4% of dogs harbored parasite DNA in their blood, including both seronegative and seropositive dogs. Molecular screening of organs from opportunistically sampled seropositive dogs revealed parasite DNA in heart, uterus, and mammary tissues. Strain-typing showed parasite discrete typing units (DTU) TcI and TcIV present in dog samples, including a co-occurrence of both DTUs in two individual dogs. Bloodmeal analysis of Triatoma gerstaeckeri and Triatoma sanguisuga insects collected from the kennels revealed exclusively dog DNA. Vector infection with T. cruzi was 80.6% (n = 36), in which T. gerstaeckeri disproportionately harbored TcI (p = 0.045) and T. sanguisuga disproportionately harbored TcIV (p = 0.029). Tracing infection status across dog litters showed some seropositive offspring of seronegative dams, suggesting infection of pups from local triatomine vectors rather than congenital transmission. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Canine kennels are high-risk environments for T. cruzi transmission, in which dogs likely serve as the predominant parasite reservoir. Disease and death of working dogs from Chagas disease is associated with unmeasured yet undoubtedly significant financial consequences because working dogs are highly trained and highly valued.

Developing Cultural Competence through the Introduction of Medical Spanish into the Veterinary Curriculum.

The AAVMC has prioritized diversity as one of its core values. Its DiVersity Matters initiative is helping veterinary medicine prepare for the changing demographics of the United States. One example of the changing demographics is the growing Hispanic population. In 2013, the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences responded to the needs of this growing sector by introducing medical Spanish into the core curriculum for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students. The medical Spanish course takes place over 5 weeks during the second year of the curriculum, and is composed of lectures and group learning. While this may seem like a very compressed time frame for language learning, our goal is to provide students with basic medical vocabulary and a limited number of useful phrases. In this paper, we outline the implementation of a medical Spanish course in our curriculum, including our pedagogical approaches to the curricular design of the course, and an explanation of how we executed these approaches. We also discuss the successes and challenges that we have encountered, as well as our future plans for the course. We hope that the successes and challenges that we have encountered can serve as a model for others who plan to introduce a foreign language into their curriculum as a component of cultural competency.