[Ecology of a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Thiès region (Senegal, West Africa). 6. Characterization and typing of the strains of Leishmania isolated].

The authors studied the characterisation and typing of Leishmania strains isolated in the Keur-Moussa focus from human lesions (4 strains), from the digestive tract of Phlebotomus duboscqi (I strain) and from the rodents Mastomys erythroleucus (2 strains) and Tatera gambiana (2 strains). They used the following criteria: amastigote measurements, kinetoplast ultrastructure, pathogenicity in mice and hamsters, isoenzymes, kinetoplast and nuclear DNA buoyant densities and the Adler test. The results demonstrated that all the strains isolated from the various hosts and the Central Asian Leishmania major strains tested were identical according to these criteria. In addition the four human strains isolated in other regions of Senegal were also identical to those of the Keur-Moussa focus.