Leishmania infantum-specific IFN-? production in stimulated blood from cats living in areas where canine leishmaniosis is endemic

Priolo, Vito; Martínez-Orellana, Pamela; Pennisi, Maria Grazia; Masucci, Marisa; Prandi, David; Ippolito, Dorotea; Bruno, Federica; Castelli, Germano; Solano-Gallego, Laia

In this study, most IFNγ-p cats were negative to L. infantum antibody and DNA detection in blood (25/32, 78%) . This finding means that the combination of serological and molecular tests with L. infantum-specific IFN-γ evaluation offered a more accurate overall estimation of the exposure to L. infantum of cats under study. In fact, the prevalence of L. infantum was 5% for blood PCR and 22% for antibody detection but the combination of results obtained by serological and molecular testing did not increase the percentage of positivity because all PCR positive cats were also positive for L. infantum antibodies (Fig. 1) . However, when also considering positivity for L. infantum-specific IFN-γ production, the overall L. infantum prevalence raised to 36%. These data confirm that a considerable percentage of the studied cats had contact with L. infantum and that detection of cell-mediated immune response by measuring specific IFN-γ production provides a better estimation of exposure of cats to L. infantum in endemic areas as seen in dogs with different techniques [34, 36] .