Seroepidemiological Study on Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis in Meshkin-Shahr District, Ardabil Province, Northwest of Iran during 2006-2007

This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of canine visceral leishmaniasis in Meshkin-Shahr district as endemic areas of human visceral leishmaniasis (HVL) for presenting control program of HVL to health authorities. A seroepidemiological study to determine seroprevalence of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) among owner­ship dogs using direct agglutination tests (DAT) in 21 villages of Meshkin-Shahr district, Ardabil Province was carried out from June 2006 to August 2007. Three hundred and eighty four ownership dogs were selected by multi-stage cluster sam­pling. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used to compare seroprevalence values relative to gender, age and clinical signs. Of the 384 serum samples tested by DAT, 17.4 %(95%C.I, 13.2%-20.8%) were positive (1:320 and higher). No statistical significant difference was found between male (16.5%) and female (20.2%) seroprevalence (P=0.416). The high­est seroprevalence rate (64.2%) was observed among the ownership dogs of three years age and above. Only 25.4% of the seropositive dogs had clinical signs and symptoms. The most clinical signs among symptomatic dogs were cachexia (75%) and alopecia (36.5%). The majority of seropositive dogs (74.6%) lived in endemic areas of Meshkin-Shahr district were asympto­matic. It seems that all symptomatic and asymptomatic infected dogs are the most important risk factors for human infec­tion in VL endemic areas.