The present study aims at evaluating the efficacy of two rapid tools, IgM dot ELISA and Latex Agglutination Test employing recombinant LipL32 as antigen in diagnosing acute leptospirosis in dogs in Kerala, a disease endemic area. One hundred and five serum samples were collected from dogs presented at Veterinary Hospitals attached to Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University during the period from September 2014 to May 2016. Microscopic Agglutination test was carried out using the reference strains maintained in the Dept. of Veterinary Microbiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy. In MAT, samples with titre ≥ 1:800 were considered as positive. For recombinant LipL32 protein production, the lipl32 gene of Leptospira interrogans was ligated with prokaryotic expression vector and transformed into competent E. coli DH5α cells. The clones were induced with Isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) and the protein was purified using Nickel affinity chromatography and used as antigen in IgM dot ELISA, plate ELISA and Latex Agglutination Test (LAT). | Evaluation of two rapid field level diagnostic tools for acute canine Leptospirosis in an endemic area
