Reliability of serological methods for detection of leishmaniasis in portuguese domestic and wild reservoirs

A direct agglutination test (DAT) and an immunofluorescence technique (IFAT) were compared for detection of Leishmania infantum infection in 43 dogs and five foxes from Alto-Douro and Arrábida, two known endemic areas in Portugal. In four dogs with proved canine leishmaniasis, both DAT and IFAT show...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Main Authors: SJ Semião-Santos, P Abranches, MCD Silva-Pereira, GM Santos-Gomes, JP Fernandes, JCM Vetter
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 1996
Subjects:
canine
vulpine
leishmaniasis
direct agglutination test
immunofluorescence technique
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Microbiology
QR1-502
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/S0074-02761996000600018
https://doaj.org/article/5d6927a0cc9740bf86f78f61dc544703
Description
Summary:A direct agglutination test (DAT) and an immunofluorescence technique (IFAT) were compared for detection of Leishmania infantum infection in 43 dogs and five foxes from Alto-Douro and Arrábida, two known endemic areas in Portugal. In four dogs with proved canine leishmaniasis, both DAT and IFAT showed positive readings (titres >1:320 and >1:128). Of 34 samples collected from apparently healthy dogs, ten were positive by both serological tests and eight were serologically positive by one test or the other. Three foxes out of five captured in this area, scored titres indicative of leishmaniasis in both DAT and IFAT. The concordance between DAT and IFAT in all collected samples (48) was 81.25%. Considering these and previous studies in the adjacent Mediterranean areas, the seroprevalence of L. infantum infection in the canine and vulpine populations appear to be of high magnitude.

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