Prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi, the Etiologic Agent of Chagas Disease, Infection in Texas Skunks (Mammalia: Mephitidae).

ABSTRACT: Background: Chagas disease is one of the world's most neglected tropical diseases, infecting over six million people across the Americas. The hemoparasite Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent for the disease, circulating in domestic, peridomestic, and sylvatic transmission cycles that are maintained by triatomine vectors and a diversity of wild and synanthropic hosts. Public health and wildlife management interventions targeting the interruption of T. cruzi transmission rely on an understanding of the dynamics driving the ecology of this zoonotic pathogen. One wildlife host that purportedly plays a role in the transmission of Chagas disease within the southern United States is the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), although infection prevalence in t

SUBMITTER: Gulas-Wroblewski BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10024073 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature