Study on infection of rodents with leishmania by parasitological, serological and molecular methods (PCR) in Sarab area, East Azerbaijan province, Iran in 2011

Subject Areas : Journal of Comparative Pathobiology

Fallah, E.*, Shahbazi, A., Aboalsoltani, N., Bazmani, A., Khanmohammadi, M. . ¹

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Received: 2014-01-09 Accepted : 2014-05-19 Published : 2014-09-23

Keywords: Visceral Leishmaniasis, Rodents, Direct Agglutination Test (DAT, Sarab,

Abstract :

Visceral leishmaniasis is a parasitic–infections and zoonotic disease in the countries ofMediterranean basin and Middle East, including Iran. The causative agent of visceral eishmaniain Iran is leishmania infantum and dog and canines are main reservoirs. Infections of leishmaniainfantum in rodents have been proved. The main objective of this investigation was to screenleishmania infection in rodents and possible role in transmission of the disease to human byParasitology, Serology and Molecular methods in Sarab District, East Azarbaijan Province in2011. In this research, 100 rodents of four species and genus were trapped alive in variousparts of the Sarab area. Before killing the caught rodents, blood samples were collected fromeach of them in Polypropylene tubes and this samples were tested by direct agglutinationtest (DAT). Amongst them 1(1% )rodent seropositive, 6 (6%) rodents had lower titers thanpositive titer, and 93 rodents were seronegative. The smears were prepared from spleen andliver all animals examined microscopically and did not show any amastigotes. Part ofthe spleen and liver of rodents were cultured in NNN, RPMI 1640 media, but leishmaniawere not isolated from cultures media. Finally, from 100 rodents spleen tissue DNAextraction for PCR with using specific primers named k-DNA were done but any Bandlinked to lishmania were observed.