Mouse Footpad Inoculation
Inoculation of viable bacilli into the murine hind footpad, with serial harvest to demonstrate multiplication. It is the reference method for testing whether bacilli are alive and for phenotypic drug susceptibility testing. Results take 6–12 months and need dedicated animal facilities.
- Technology
- Drug Resistance Testing · In vivo propagation
- What it measures
- Viable M. leprae multiplication
- Developer
- A small number of reference laboratories, first described at the US Communicable Disease Center, now the CDC (Shepard, 1960)
- Specimen
- Slit-skin smear
- Development status
- LDT with clinical validation
- Regulatory status
- None / RUO
- Intended use
- Viability assessment and phenotypic drug susceptibility testing
- Main limitation
- Results take 6–12 months, and few laboratories have the animal facilities.
- Linked publications
- 276
- Collaborating institutions
- National Hansen's Disease Program (Baton Rouge, LA, USA), Leprosy Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases (Tokyo, Japan), Instituto Lauro de Souza Lima (Bauru, Brazil)
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