Seroepidemiological investigation of visceral leishmaniasis in dogs of Ahvaz district, Iran

Visceral leishmaniasis is a parasitic infectious disease from dogs and canids to human that is caused by protozoans of the genus Leishmania. Information on the prevalence of canine leishmaniasis is necessary to define control measures for zoonotic leishmaniasis. This seroepidemiological survey was performed in dogs from Ahvaz district using by DAT and ELISA. Blood was randomly collected in ۳۸ pure or mixed breed dogs presented to veterinary hospital of Shahid Chamran university (urban dogs) and ۱۷۲ mongrel dogs of ۱۰ villages around Ahvaz city (rural dogs). A high level of concordance (۹۸%) was found between the titers measured by DAT and ELISA then DAT selected as valid and simple test. The detected seroprevalences based on DAT were ۲.۶% and ۱۶.۳% in urban and rural dogs respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed between male and female seroprevalences in each groups and among various villages (P>۰.۰۵). Regarding age-groups of rural dogs, the lowest of seroprevalence (۵.۳%) was found in dogs younger than one year of age and the highest (۳۳.۳%) in dogs older than seven years. Only between of these two groups was statistically significant difference (P

کلیدواژه ها:

Visceral leishmaniasis ، ELISA ، DAT ، Dog ، Ahvaz