Shelters are places that receive certain species of domestic animals, mostly dogs and cats, that are normally abandoned. These animals are easy to handle because they are crowded and have limited movement. Dogs, due to the close relationship with humans, are considered the main domestic reservoirs in the peridomiciliary cycle of American trypanosomiasis infection in humans. Therefore, in several countries studies are carried out to assess the occurrence of infection in these animals. This work evaluated the occurrence of Trypanosoma cruzi in dogs from shelters in the city of Aracaju, Sergipe. This was an observational and cross-sectional study to detect the occurrence of T. cruzi in blood samples from shelter dogs using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with the TcZ1/TcZ2 primers. A total of 168 blood samples from dogs (104 females and 64 males) were collected and subjected to DNA and PCR extraction, and seventeen (10.1%) samples showed amplification of the product of the expected size. The TcZ1/TcZ2 primer pair used is considered specific for T. cruzi, and it is capable of amplifying all strains without amplifying other Trypanosoma species. The shelters evaluated had different physical infrastructure; animals positive for T. cruzi were found in all of them, as confirmed by sequencing. It is concluded that shelter dogs, as well as other domestic animals, can function as indicators of the occurrence of T. cruzi in Aracaju-SE, providing relevant epidemiological information for health surveillance and monitoring of Trypanosomatid infections.

庇护所是接收某些通常被遗弃的某些家畜种类的地方，主要是狗和猫。这些动物很拥挤且活动受限，因此易于处理。由于与人的亲密关系，狗被认为是美国锥虫病人类感染周生周期中的主要家养水库。因此，在一些国家进行了研究以评估这些动物中感染的发生。这项工作评估了Sergipe市Aracaju市收容所的狗中出现克鲁氏锥虫的情况。这是一项观察性和横断面研究，可检测出克鲁斯锥虫的发生使用TcZ1 / TcZ2引物的聚合酶链反应（PCR）从庇护犬的血液样本中提取血样。总共收集了来自犬（104名雌性和64名雄性）的168个血液样本，并进行了DNA和PCR提取，十七个样本（10.1％）显示出预期大小的产物的扩增。所用的TcZ1 / TcZ2引物对被认为是特异于克氏锥虫的，它能够扩增所有菌株，而不扩增其他锥虫。被评估的避难所的基础设施有所不同；经测序证实，在所有这些动物中均发现了克氏锥虫阳性的动物。结论是，庇护犬以及其他家畜可以作为克鲁维氏锥虫发生的指标。 在Aracaju-SE提供有关流行病学信息，以进行健康监测和锥虫病感染监测。