Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Parasitology 1735-7020 6 1 2011 03 15 1 11 EN H Mahmoudvand Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, ehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran M Mohebali Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, ehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran I Sharifi Dermatology and LeishmaniasisN Research Centre, School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran H Keshavarz Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, ehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran H Hajjaran Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, ehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran B Akhoundi Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, ehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran S Jahanbakhsh Dermatology and LeishmaniasisN Research Centre, School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran M Zarean Dermatology and LeishmaniasisN Research Centre, School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran A Javadi Department of Pathology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 2015 10 03 Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) is an endemic disease in some areas of Iran. A cross- sectional study was conducted for sero-epidemiological survey of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Baft district from Kerman Province, southeast of Iran. Methods: Blood samples  were  collected  from children  up to 12 years old and 10% of adult population from Baft villages with a multi-stage randomized cluster sampling. In addition, blood samples were collected from 30 domestic dogs from the same areas. All the collected blood sam­ples were tested by direct agglutination test (DAT) for the detection of anti-Leishmania  antibod­ies in both human and dog using the cut-off value of ≥1:3200 and ≥ 1:320, respectively. Parasitologi­cal, molecular, and pathological were performed on infected dogs. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used to compare sero-prevalence values. Results: From 1476 collected human serum samples, 23 (1.55%) showed anti-Leishmania antibod­ies at titers of 1:800 and 1:1600 whereas 14 (0.95%) showed anti-Leishmania infantum antibodies at titers of   ≤ 1:3200.  No statistically significant difference was found between male (1.18 %) and female (0.69%) sero-prevalence (P=0.330). Children of 5-8 years showed the high­est sero-prevalence rate (3.22%).  Seven out of 30 domestic dogs (23%) showed anti-Leishmania antibodies at titers ≤1:320. Leishmania infantum was identified in five infected dogs by nested - PCR assay. Conclusion: It seems that visceral leishmaniasis is being endemic in southern villages of Baft district, southeast of Iran. https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/view/159 https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/download/159/158