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

Visceral leishmaniasis is a parasitic–infections and zoonotic disease in the countries of Mediterranean basin and Middle East, including Iran. The causative agent of visceral eishmania in Iran is leishmania infantum and dog and canines are main reservoirs. Infections of leishmania infantum in rodents have been proved. The main objective of this investigation was to screen leishmania infection in rodents and possible role in transmission of the disease to human by Parasitology, Serology and Molecular methods in Sarab District, East Azarbaijan Province in 2011. In this research, 100 rodents of four species and genus were trapped alive in various parts of the Sarab area. Before killing the caught rodents, blood samples were collected from each of them in Polypropylene tubes and this samples were tested by direct agglutination test (DAT). Amongst them 1(1% )rodent seropositive, 6 (6%) rodents had lower titers than positive titer, and 93 rodents were seronegative. The smears were prepared from spleen and liver all animals examined microscopically and did not show any amastigotes. Part of the spleen and liver of rodents were cultured in NNN, RPMI 1640 media, but leishmania were not isolated from cultures media. Finally, from 100 rodents spleen tissue DNA extraction for PCR with using specific primers named k-DNA were done but any Band linked to lishmania were observed.