ABSTRACT
The genus Leishmania includes 30 described species which infect a wide variety of mammalian hosts. The precise identification of leismanial parasites at the species level is very important in order to determine whether an organism, causing the disease in a given area, is of the same biotype as that found in suspected mammalian reservoir. the objectives of the present study were (1) to identify leismanial parasites isolated from humans and wild rodents from the State of Campeche, an endemic focus of localized cutaneous leishmaniasis (LCL) in southern Mexico, using an indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA) with monoclonal antibodies (Mabs): and (2) to determine if the parasites of the two types of hosts wre of the same biotype. All the wild rodents (six Ototylomys phyllotis, eight Oryzomys melanotis, five Peromyscus yucatanicus and two Sigmodon hispidus) and 96 (por cento) (24/25) of the human isolates were identified as Leishmania (L.) mexicana confirming that this specific LCL focus is a wild zoonosis. The presence of one human isolate of L. (Viannia) braziliensis in the State of Campeche, conirmed the importance of an accurate taxonomic identification at species level.