This page quotes a published document. Everything below in quotation marks is copied word for word from https://capcvet.org/guidelines/leishmaniasis/, published by CAPC and retrieved on 2026-09-16. The quotations are excerpts; the document itself is linked and is the authority. Nothing has been reworded.
This page quotes the Companion Animal Parasite Council guideline for Leishmaniasis, section by section: the opening sentences of 7 sections, copied without change and linked to the guideline, which was retrieved on 2026-09-16. The guideline itself is the authority and carries the full text.
The guideline
Companion Animal Parasite Council, Leishmaniasis, at https://capcvet.org/guidelines/leishmaniasis/. Retrieved 2026-09-16. Each heading below is the guideline’s own, and the quotation under it is how that section begins. The full section, and the species tabs where the guideline gives them, are on the linked page.
Synopsis
CAPC Recommends Consider a diagnosis of leishmaniasis in any dogs with a travel history to an endemic area; dogs in North America are not known to be infected by sand fly vectors although direct vertical and horizontal transmission does occur. Diagnose leishmaniasis based on clinical signs, antibody tests, or PCR; diagnosis can be confirmed by identifying organisms in aspirates, biopsy samples, or touch preparations of affected tissues.
Species
Leishmania infantum is the most common and important cause of canine leishmaniasis worldwide. Although referred to as canine leishmaniosis in most of the world, many in North America still use the historic form leishmaniasis; CAPC considers the two terms synonymous.
Disease
Infection does not invariably lead to illness. In fact, most infected dogs remain asymptomatic and may never develop clinical manifestations.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis of canine leishmaniasis is based on the presence of clinical signs together with positive specific antibody assay. Infection can be confirmed by demonstration of the parasites (amastigotes) on touch prep stained (Wright-Giemsa) slides or in cultures of tissue aspirates or biopsy specimens of the spleen, liver, bone marrow, or lymph nodes.
Treatment
Canine leishmaniasis is less amenable to treatment than this infection is in humans. Anti-leishmanial drugs used in dogs include pentavalent antimonials and allopurinol; to date, no drug has proven to be consistently curative for visceral leishmaniasis in dogs.
Control and Prevention
In endemic areas where vector transmission is the primary mode of transmission, vector control limits transmission; use of persistent repellent insecticides such as permethrin or deltamethrin helps protect dogs from contact with vectors, reducing the risk of transmission. In regions where the infection is not endemic, euthanasia of infected dogs is sometimes recommended to prevent leishmaniasis from becoming endemic.
Public Health Considerations
In areas where L. infantum is endemic and transmitted by insect vectors, it is an important agent of human disease and dogs are considered the most important peridomestic reservoir host. However, ownership of an infected dog has not been shown to increase the risk of infection in the family.
Continue reading public health considerations on capcvet.org
Sources
- capc-leishmaniasisCAPC · retrieved 2026-09-16
“CAPC Recommends Consider a diagnosis of leishmaniasis in any dogs with a travel history to an endemic area; dogs in North America are not known” (Synopsis)
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