Alarming: high prevalence of Leishmania infantum infection in cats from southern Iran based on molecular and serological methods.

Recently, Leishmania infantum has increasingly been detected in stray cats in endemic regions of the world. Cats have been considered playing a role in the epidemiology of visceral leishmaniosis, an endemic zoonosis in Iran. The studies concerning feline leishmaniosis (FeL) allow the hypothesis that cats can be considered as potential reservoirs. The investigations on Leishmania infection in cats are very few in Iran and therefore we aimed to assess the L. infantum infection in stray cats and its possible role in transmission of the disease to human by direct agglutination test (DAT), ELISA, nested-PCR and confirmation via sequencing and phylogenetic analysis in Fars province, Iran. Whole blood samples were obtained from 174 stray cats. Anti-Leishmania antibodies were detected in the sera using DAT and ELISA. DNA was extracted from the buffy coat of each subject and PCR amplified, targeting Leishmania kDNA gene. PCR results were confirmed by sequence analysis. Prevalence of clinical signs in positive cats was 19.0%. Anti-Leishmania antibodies with different titers were detected in 48 (27.59%) and leishmanial DNA in 36 (20.69%) of the cats. The sequencing of PCR-positive cats revealed the parasite as L. infantum. A high seroprevalence of L. infantum was revealed, with higher levels in males, adult cats, and those living in rural districts and southern zones. Despite the reservoir task of cats in nature is still ambiguous, the high serological and molecular detection of L. infantum in stray cats indicates that cats are regularly bitten by infected sand flies in Fars province, southern Iran, and may have a potential reservoir role in the maintenance of L. infantum in the endemic areas of zoonotic visceral leishmaniosis in Iran. Anyway, Leishmania infection must be appraised in the differential diagnosis of cutaneous or systemic clinical signs in cats.