First quarter January-March

The paper “Canine leishmaniasis: Guidelines on diagnosis, staging, therapy, monitoring, and prevention: Part II: therapy” has been published in the number 6 of December 2008 of Veterinaria journal (pages 9-20). This work report in detail the presentation performed at the 59th International Multi-hall Congress SCIVAC of Rimini, including the up-date of therapy to October 31th, 2008. Unfortunately, an erratum should be reported regarding the page 14 in the part dealing with Miltefosine where a dosage of 2 mg/kg BID instead of being SID has been written.

A meeting of CLWG members has been held in Milano on March 5th in the occasion of 61st National Congress SCIVAC of March 6-8 with the participation of Dr.s Zatelli, Crotti, Oliva, Maroli, and Badiale and Prof. Paltrinieri. In this meeting has been discussed and analyzed the next presentation of CLWG about “Canine leishmaniasis: Guidelines on diagnosis, staging, therapy, monitoring, and prevention: Part III Prevention”, that will be held in Rimini in the occasion of the 62nd International Multi-hall Congress SCIVAC from May 29th to 31st. In summary, all the animals living in endemic area for the disease should be preventively treated against phlebotomine bite, by means of mechanical or chemical products for variable time and by modalities according to micro and macro environmental conditions. In addition, a meeting with Dr. Hein Meyer, Vet Affair Manager of Hill’s Pet Nutrition Europe has been performed in order to discuss the future plans of CLWG in the view to increase the international acknowledgement of the group and in comparison with other group which are interested to the same topic of CLWG.

Dr. A. Zatelli has held on March 12th a seminar on “Canine Leishmaniasis and Nephropaties” in La Valletta, Malta, sponsored by Hill’s Pet Nutrition and organized by Maltese Veterinary Association at the ‘Institute of Agriculture’, University of Malta. Dr. Zatelli presented a speech on 'Diagnosis and treatment of canine leishmaniasis'.

Dr. E. Zini in the frame of the 5th ECVIM-CA Winter meeting held in Hich Ybrig (Switzerland) on March 12th and 13th has presented the following speeches:

New insights into diagnosing leishmaniasis

New insights into the treatment of leishmaniasis

Dr. L. Gradoni has participated on March 12th to a meeting on “Evidence based veterinary medicine and veterinary medicine” organized both by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bologna and Italian Cochrane Centre of the Mario Negri Institute, held in Ozzano dell’Emilia (BO). Dr. Gradoni has presented a speech whose title was “From evidence to guidelines: the GSLC experience”.

Prof. G. Oliva has partecipated to the 11th National Veterinary Congress in Greece held in Athens from March 19th to 22nd, where a round table on Canine leishmaniasis has been held sponsored by Hill’s Pet Nutrition. The program of the round table was:

V. Kontos: Epidemiology of the Canine Leishmaniasis (CL);

A. Koutinas: Clinical findings and clinico-pathological abnormalities;

E. Karagouni: Immunology of the CL – development of the vaccine;

E. Papadogiannakis: Immunology response in the CL;

L. Solano Gallego: Clinical and diagnostic approach to the CL;

G. Oliva: Recent advancement in the therapy of CL.

Second quarter April-June

The activity of CLWG at international level has been realized with the acceptance from the Editorial Committee of the prestigious Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association of the article on the guidelines for diagnosis and classification of leishmaniasis ("Canine leishmaniasis: guidelines for diagnosis and clinical classification) that will be published in the next months.

In fast sequence also the article on the guidelines of therapy of leishmaniasis has been additionally accepted for publication (Canine leishmaniasis: guidelines for drug therapy). As soon as possible in this web site the link for these articles will be available. The CLWG has also cooperated to the preparation of Veterinary Therapeutic Formulary edited by SCIVAC in the fifth edition of 2009 for the section dedicated to canine leishmaniasis. In this formulary, that is freely distributed to all SCIVAC associated members, but also regularly in the specialized bookstores, the two full papers published in Veterinaria journal have been reported in full (2007, 21, 3: page 19-31) (2008, 22, 6: page 9-20). These papers cover diagnostic approach, classification of dogs affected by leishmaniasis, management of dog with proteinuria, and the therapeutic approach (see Prontuario Terapeutico Veterinario SCIVAC 2009, page 618-640). Guidelines in diagnosis, classification and proteinuria management in leishmaniasis - Guidelines on the therapy of leishmaniasis

In the number 13th, April 2009 of the “La Professione Veterinaria” weekly journal addressed to all SCIVAC members has been published a review edited by Prof. G. Lubas covering the history and evolution of the CLWG web site. This article is a period of 8 months review in the year 2008, illustrating the behavior of connection, the characteristic of web surfer and which has been the major interest to the contents of this web site devoted to the news of the CLWG. The article has been also translated in other languages that are currently used in the web site besides English, French and Spanish. History and evolution of the Gruppoleishmania.org web site

The annual meeting of CLWG has been held on May 28th, 2009 just before the Multihall International Congress of SCIVAC of Rimini to discuss the following items: Review of the presentation about guidelines of leishmaniasis prevention, which has been effectively presented on May 29th, 2009 by Dr. Maroli, in a dedicated space inside the Congress in the Hall 1, the largest. It is possible to download from this web site the presentation arranged as slides. Presentation of guidelines about prevention in canine leishmaniasis

Final review of the full article to publish in the Veterinaria journal whose title is “Canine leishmaniasis: guidelines on diagnosis, staging, therapy, monitoring and prevention. Part III: prevention” that finalize the three part papers about canine leishmaniasis. As soon as possible from this web site could be available as a preview this important paper. Constitution of the Scientific Committee that will take care to arrange and manage the next Congress on canine leishmaniasis that will be held in Pisa, Italy in April 2010. The members of CLWG that are involved in the committee are Prof.s Oliva and Paltrinieri, Dr.s Maroli and Zini, coordinated by Prof. Lubas as a local chairman, as the meeting will take place in the Congress Hall of the University of Pisa.

Finally, on June 24th 2009 the on-line journal “Vet-Journal” pointed out the large activities of CLWG about prevention of leishmaniasis along with several practical suggestions for practitioners that every day has to compete with this important parasitic disease. These advices are derived from the presentation recently showed in the frame of the Multihall International Congress SCIVAC of Rimini. Prevent canine leishmaniasis: guidelines from CLWG