Detection and isolation of Leishmania infantum from natural infected dog in Türkiye

Some clinical signs such as cachexia, alopecia, exfoliative dermatitis, hair loss, and swollen lymph nodes were observed in a one-year-old crossbred male dog living in a rural area of Kirikkale province, Türkiye, was presented to the veterinary clinic by its owner. Anaemia, leucopenia, hyperglobulinemia, and bilirubinemia were detected. Seropositivity was detected using Leishmania IgG/IgM Rapid Test. The amastigote forms of the parasite were observed in the lymph node aspirates. Viable promastigotes were observed in the samples obtained from the Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle medium (NNN) tubes. The parasite DNA was extracted from the promastigotes produced in the NNN medium using a DNA extraction kit according to the manufacturer's instructions. The specific bands indicating the gene regions of L. infantum (350 bp and 730 bp for HSP20 and HSP70, respectively) were observed. Additionally, BLASTn analysis revealed 100 % similarity with GenBank-deposited L. infantum sequences. The sequences were submitted to GenBank (Accession numbers: OR806945 and OR806946). According to the author's knowledge, it is the first dog isolate deposited in the collection of the Microbiology Reference Laboratories and Biological Products Department, General Directorate of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Ankara, Türkiye. The isolate (TR_L. infantum CanL-1_damla) has been preserved by cryopreservation at -150 °C for further studies.