TY - JOUR AU - Marčić, Doroteja AU - Žekić Stošić, Marina AU - Milošević, Smiljana AU - Pušić, Ivan AU - Potkonjak, Aleksandar AU - Tasić Otašević, Suzana AU - Savić, Sara PY - 2020/12/15 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Seroprevalence of Leishmania spp. in dogs in northern Serbia JF - Veterinarski Glasnik JA - Vet Glas VL - 74 IS - 2 SE - Short communication DO - 10.2298/VETGL201030015M UR - https://veterinarskiglasnik.rs/index.php/vg/article/view/177 SP - 187-193 AB - <p>Leishmaniosis is a zoonotic disease caused by <em>Leishmania</em> spp. Serbia was an endemic region for this disease until the second half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. Nowadays, canine leishmaniosis appears to be a re-emerging vector-borne disease in Serbia. Its spread is enabled by the presence of <em>Phlebotomus</em> spp. sandflies in this region. The objective of this study was to establish the seroprevalence of <em>Leishmania</em> spp. in dogs being kept in shelters in Serbia and compare those that apply and those that do not apply prophylactic measures against arthropod vectors. This cross-sectional study involved 336 dogs in two regions in Northern Serbia during 2019-2020. A commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test was used to establish the prevalence of seropositive dogs. In the shelters that applied prophylactic measures against arthropod vectors, dogs were seronegative (n=52), while in those without these measures, 2.1% (6/284) were seropositive against <em>Leishmania</em> spp. In conclusion, the presence of dogs seropositive against <em>Leishmania</em> spp. in shelters that did not apply prophylactic measures may indicate that the local population of sandflies is a source of <em>Leishmania </em>spp. parasites.</p> ER -