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A rapid indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for measuring antibodies against Leishmania chagasi using total antigen from lysed promastigotes. Fifty symptomatic mixed breed dogs from a region of high incidence of visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil were examined. The results showed that in the positive animals, diagnosed by cytological examination, the ELISA using protein A assay system (mean optical density ± SD / 2.078 ± 0.631) detected more antibodies than the anti-IgG assay (mean optical density ± SD / 1.008 ± 0.437), while in the negative animals, the results by both systems were similar. These results suggest that the ELISA assay using protein A peroxidase conjugated could be useful to detect early infected animals in endemic areas, and thus help to control the spread of the infection.

Leptospirosis is a globally distributed emerging zoonosis. Dogs are commonly affected and although other serovars can cause canine leptospirosis, Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola is primary found in these animals. A retrospective study was conducted using a database of 1195 dogs tested for Leptospira infection from 2003 to 2010 at the Laboratory of Zoonosis Diagnosis at the Veterinary Hospital of São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Botucatu, São Paulo state, Brazil. The seroprevalence of infected dogs was 20.08% (240/1195), and the most prevalent serovars were Canicola (6.7%), Copenhageni (5.0%), Icterohaemorrhagiae (2.9%), Autumnalis (2.9%), Pyrogenes (2.8%), Pomona (2.0%), Hardjo (2.0%), Australis (1.8%), Bratislava (1.6%), Cynopteri (1.4%), Grippotyphosa (1.3%) and Djasiman (1.0%). By univariate analysis, the variables age and breed were not statistically related to the infection, while gender and season were. The effects of gender were also noticeable related to serovars Australis, Canicola and Hardjo. In multivariate analysis, the level of significance (p-value) of season was suppressed by gender, indicating possible collinearity between those two variables.

Toxoplasma gondii and Leishmania spp. are protozoan parasites that cause zoonosis, are distributed worldwide, and affect domestic and wild animals and humans. Cats are important in the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis because they are the only hosts that can excrete the environmentally resistant stage: the oocysts 1 .In 1999, visceral leishmaniasis in cats was fi rst recorded by Hervas et al. 2 in Spain. Since then, current cases represent a widespread distribution, and include reports from Italy 3 , Portugal 4 , the United States 5 . In Brazil, the fi rst occurrence of Leishmania infantum in a cat was recorded in 2004 by Savani et al 5 . Some authors consider this animal an accidental host, while others suggest that felids can act as potential peridomestic reservoirs 6 . However, the role of cats in the epidemiology of leishmaniasis remains to be clarifi ed.The present study was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee (protocol 65/2007) of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry, São Paulo State University, following the Ethical Principles in Animal Experimentation. A total of 50 cats (Felis catus) that were domiciliated in the City of Campo Grande (20°26'34''S, 54°38'47''W) in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil were selected randomly without predilection for sex breed, or age. Blood samples were obtained to detect antibodies for T. gondii and Leishmania spp.The immunofl uorescence antibody test (IFAT) was performed, according to the method described by Camargo 7 , which used whole Leishmania major-like promastigote and the RH strain of T. gondii as the antigen for the diagnosis of leishmaniasis and toxoplasmosis, respectively. Modifi ed agglutination test (MAT) using the RH strain was performed, as described by Desmonts and Remington 8 . The cutoff T. gondii antibody titer for both tests was 16, and the corresponding value in IFAT for Leishmania spp. was 40.Two (4%) of the 50 animals presented titers of antibodies for T. gondii and Leishmania spp., which suggested coinfection by these two protozoa in the same animal. Cat #1 was a female of undefi ned breed, 2 years of age, and presented T. gondii antibody titers of 64 (based on IFAT) and 1,024 (based on MAT), and an antibody titer of 320 for Leishmania spp. Cat #2 was also a female of undefi ned breed, 3 years of age, and presented T. gondii titers of 16 (based on IFAT) and 1,024 (based on MAT), and a Leishmania spp. titer of 320 (Table 1). Neither cat presented clinical signs. Similar results were obtained by Cardia et al. 9 with specifi c anti-Toxoplasma immunoglobulin G (IgG) in 63 (16.3%) of 386 cats and IgG against Leishmania spp. in two serum samples with titers of 1:160 and 1:320, respectively. In a study conducted by Sobrinho et al. 10 in another Brazilian endemic area, 25.7% cats were coinfected with both agents. However, the authors did not observe a signifi cant association between these infections.In this study, the MAT and IFAT were used, based on the results for cats obtained by Macrì et al. 11 , with a concordance of 0.98 (i.e...