[Serologic diagnosis of canine leishmaniasis: the dot-ELISA as a simple alternative to conventional ELISA].

Serology is an important tool for the diagnosis of canine leishmaniasis, since the direct detection of the parasite remains negative in many cases. A dot-ELISA was developed, which can be read without using a photometer. For this purpose assay strips were prepared, which were divided into a control field (staining indicates normal function of reagents) and four reaction fields. The reaction fields were coated with four different concentrations of Leishmania antigen and allowed semiquantitative readings of test results. The comparison of the reactions of 73 sera (20 healthy dogs, 24 dogs with leishmaniasis, 15 dogs with trypanosomiasis and 14 dogs with babesiosis) in the dot-ELISA with the results of a conventional microtiter plate ELISA showed a significant correlation between the two methods.