**1. Introduction**

Leishmaniases is a disease caused by protozoan intracellular parasites called *Leishmania*, members of Trypanosomatidae family, and are endemics in 98 countries and territories.

More than 20 parasite species are involved in the three different clinical manifestation diseases in human beings: cutaneous leishmaniasis, mucosal leishmaniasis, and visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar). Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a complication of visceral leishmaniasis in a patient who has recovered from the disease. The vectors are sand flies, insects of medical and veterinary relevance, and different species involved in its transmission.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

According to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 12 million people infected with leishmaniasis, and 350 million are at risk in the world. Cutaneous leishmaniases are concentrated in ten countries, four of which are in the Americas: Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Nicaragua. Ninety percent of visceral leishmaniasis cases occur in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Sudan, and South Sudan. In the Americas, an average 60,000 cases of cutaneous and mucosal leishmaniasis and 4000 cases of visceral leishmaniasis are diagnosed annually, with a fatality rate of 7% (**Figure 1**) [1].

**Figure 1.** High-burden countries for both visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis [2].

The aim of this chapter is to describe the main aspects of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) with emphasis in Brazil.
