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 meshkinshahr district as endemic areas of human visceral leishmaniasis (hvl) for presenting control program of hvl to health authorities. methods: a seroepidemiological study to determine seroprevalence of canine visceral leishmaniasis (cvl) among ownership dogs using direct agglutination tests (dat) in 21 villages of meshkinshahr district, ardabil province was carried out from june 2006 to august 2007. three hundred and eighty four ownership dogs were selected by multistage cluster sampling. chi-square and fisher exact tests were used to compare seroprevalence values relative to gender, age and clinical signs. results: 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%). conclusion: the majority of seropositive dogs (74.6%) lived in endemic areas of meshkinshahr district were asympto- matic. it seems that all symptomatic and asymptomatic infected dogs are the most important risk factors for human infection in vl endemic areas.