Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Canine visceral leishmaniasis detected by blood tests in northern
By Nasereddin, Abedelmajeed et al.·Published in The Journal of parasitology·2006·Faculty of Medicine·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Serological survey with PCR validation for canine visceral leishmaniasis in northern Palestine.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 148 dogs in northern Palestine were tested for a disease called canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL), which is caused by a parasite. Out of these dogs, 10 were found to have antibodies against the parasite, indicating they had been exposed to it. One dog tested positive for the parasite itself, which was identified as Leishmania infantum. The study also compared different testing methods, finding that a specific DNA test (kDNA-PCR) was the most effective at detecting the parasite in blood samples. This test is recommended for routine diagnosis of CVL in dogs.
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Abstract
Leishmania infantum is the causative agent of human and canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) in the Mediterranean region. A seroprevalence study for CVL was conducted in northern Palestine. Domestic dogs (n = 148) were screened for antileishmanial antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Ten dogs (6.8%) were seropositive. Promastigotes were isolated from one seropositive dog and identified as L. infantum by excreted factor (EF) serotyping, isozyme electrophoresis, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In addition to the ELISA, the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1)-, modified ITS1 (mITS1)-, and kinetoplast DNA (kDNA)-PCRs were used to validate this technique as a diagnostic tool for CVL using blood; each assay was performed on 60 blood samples. kDNA-PCR (13/60 positives, 21.7%) was the most sensitive of the assays examined followed by mITS1-PCR (9/60, 15.0%), ELISA (5/60, 8.3%), and ITS1-PCR (3/60, 5%). However, ITS1-PCR and mITS1-PCR were also capable of identifying the parasite species and indicated they belong to L. infantum. In view of its higher sensitivity, kDNA-PCR is recommended for the routine diagnosis of CVL.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16629333/