[leish-l] Leishmaniasis/Kangaroos/Australia

[Jean Pierre Dedet]

Following the 7th July message of Fred Opperdoes about possible occurrence 
of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Kangaroos, this would be the first mention of 
leishmaniasis in Australia, a rather exciting finding.
We are, in my lab, ready to carry out isoenzymatic and molecular 
identification on the isolates.
Our Lab has a more than 30 years experience in Leishmania identification. 
Since 1975,we have an International Cryobank of  Leishmania, which is now a 
unique collection comprising 4,400 strains of Leishmania, originating from 
45 countries in 4 continents, including samples from different tissue types 
of multiple human and animal hosts (reservoirs and insect vectors).
Moreover, since 1980, our lab has developed a unit of isoenzymatic strain 
typing (15 enzymes) which carried out thousands of identifications for 
numerous groups around the world. The activity of this unit has been 
essential for numerous epidemiological studies. This isoenzymatic 
identification technique is still the gold standard method for taxonomic 
studies and robust classifications (phenetic and phylogenetic). During the 
last few years, molecular typing method, by sequencing a RNA polymerase II 
gene, has been used in parallel.
We are ready to be in contact with our Australian colleagues for further 
discussion on the kangaroos case.
Best regards
J.P. Dedet



Professeur Jean-Pierre Dedet
Laboratoire de Parasitologie
UMR 5093
163, rue Auguste Broussonet
34090 MONTPELLIER (France)
tel. : 33 (0)4 67 63 27 51
fax :  33 (0)4 67 63 00 49