Open AccessLaboratory based diagnosis of leishmaniasis in rodents as the reservoir hosts in southern Iran, 2012
Author(s) -
Masoumeh Amin,
Kourosh Azizi,
Mohsen Kalantari,
Motazedian Mohammad Hossein,
Qasem Asgari,
Moemenbellah-Fard Mohammad Djaefar,
Najafi Mohammad Esmaeil,
Tahereh Dabaghmanesh
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
asian pacific journal of tropical biomedicine/asian pacific journal of tropical biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.507
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 2588-9222
pISSN - 2221-1691
DOI - 10.12980/apjtb.4.2014apjtb-2014-0199
Subject(s) - rodent , amastigote , leishmania , leishmaniasis , biology , fauna , zoology , veterinary medicine , leishmania major , southern iran , cutaneous leishmaniasis , parasite hosting , ecology , medicine , immunology , art , literature , world wide web , computer science
ObjectiveTo examine the fauna of rodents as zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis reservoir hosts in Zarqan County, Fars Province, south of Iran, during 2012.MethodsDuring 2012, wild rodents from different parts of this region were caught by Sherman traps and checked by the examination of liver and spleen smears, for Leishmania infection, to see which species were acting as reservoir hosts; the slides were then processed to extract DNA for molecular test using PCR assay.ResultsFrom 108 rodent species caught, 63% were male and 37% identified as female. Meriones libycus was the most abundant species caught (80.5%) and 5.7% of them were found to be smear-positive for Leishmania amastigotes. The other species were Rattus rattus (14.8%) and Mus musculus (4.7%), but none of them were found positive. Leishmania infection was observed in male and female samples microscopically. Moreover, molecular results revealed Leishmania major in three male and two female specimens.ConclusionsBased on our knowledge, Meriones libycus is incriminated as the main reservoir hosts of Leishmania major in the rural area of Zarqan