Application of the indirect fluorescent antibody test in serodiagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis in experimentally infected mice and naturally infected Rhombomys opimus.

The indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) was used to detect leishmanial antibodies in experimentally inoculated mice with promastigote forms of Leishmania major, L. tropica and L. donovani infantum and in naturally infected Rhombomys opimus captured from the area endemic for cutaneous leishmaniasis in Esfahan, Iran. In the mice inoculated with L. major, the leishmanial lesion appeared at the site of inoculation and the leishmanial antibody level was much higher than in mice inoculated with other strains of Leishmania and in which no lesion was observed up to the 22nd week after inoculation. In R. opimus, the microscopical examination of the two smears prepared from the ears of each gerbil (one by the ordinary and the other by the sand-paper method) showed about 41% to be parasitologically positive. However, in IFAT about 84% were serologically positive. There was a good correlation between the percentage of thickened ears and leishmanial antibody titres in the gerbils. This investigation indicated that IFAT is a suitable serological technique for finding the reservoir hosts of leishmaniasis and determining leishmanial infection among rodents.