Possibility of Zebrafish as New infection model for Leprosy

The zebrafish emerged as a new model of developmental research and infection. Recently zebrafish were used for various mycobacterial infection studies. In this study, we investigated a possibility of the zebrafish as an infection model of Mycobacterium leprae infection. We injected Mycobacterium leprae (10(5)/30microliter) to the peritoneum of zebrafish. After 4 weeks, we found two fish evident to the subsistence and multiplication of Mycobacterium leprae, among total 25 fish. This study thus demonstrates that zebrafish may become an animal model for M. leprae infection.