Humoral response of Meriones libycus to experimental infection with Leishmania major

The humoral responses of laboratory-reared jirds (Meriones libycus) to inoculation with various doses of Leishmania major were determined. The animals were inoculated intradermally with 102, 103, 105 or 107 promastigotes of a strain of L. major originally isolated from a Jordanian patient. The jirds were then bled at various intervals throughout the 26 weeks of the study, and the sera checked, by IFAT, for antibodies to homologous parasites. There were no detectable humoral responses in the animals inoculated with 102 promastigotes each or in parasite-free controls but a positive response was apparent in each of the other jirds. The animals given 103 promastigotes each required 3 months to become IFAT-positive whereas those given 105 and 107 parasites only needed 4 and 2 weeks, respectively. More than 50% of the animals inoculated with 103 parasites each developed strongly positive sera 2 months post-infection, whereas > 50% of the animals inoculated with 105 or 107 parasites each had strongly or very str...