Seroprevalence of Canine Leishmaniasis in Sheltered Dogs in Bushehr Province, Southwest of Iran during 2022-2023

Background: The Mediterranean form of viscerad leisturumasis (VL) is endemic in some regions of Iran and is often seen in children under 10 years old. There is a 90% mortality in patients, if diagnosis and treatment are not done on time. Canids, as reservoirs, play an important role in the spread of the disease. Methods: Bushehr Province, southem Iran is always mentioned as one of the en-demic areas for VL, so for this purpose, as the first study in the region, 112 shel-tered dogs in Bushehr City were evaluated for canine leishmaniasis (CanL) using serological Direct Agglutination Test (DAT) as well as detailed clinical examina-thons. Results Out of 112 samples collected, 71.4% of cases had anti-L. mantum IgG antibody titers of 1:80 and higher and therefore considered as seropositive. Fur-thermore, from the 70 seropositive dogs with antibody titer of 1:320 and higher, 47 (42%) had at least one of the clinical symptoms associated with VL and considered as cases with CanL Conclusion: The current seroprevalence situation of dogs in this region, is very noticeable and can be an important alarm for policymakers and health system prac-titioners More comprehensive and complementary parasitological studies should be carried out on a number of reservoirs in the region for diagnosis and treatment and to accurately determine the statistics of the disease compared to the obtained seroprevalence status.