This was then incubated for 30 min at
25 C before thorough mixing. After incubation, the blood-latex
beads suspension was mixed gently again. Fifty ml of this suspension
was pipetted onto three glass microscope slides and smeared
over the surface. After air drying, the smear were fixed in 95% (v/v)
methanol, re-dried and stained with MayeGrunwald Giemsa
(Egyptian Diagnostic Media, Cairo, Egypt). The phagocytic ratio
(PR) and phagocytic index (PI) were determined by enumerating
100 phagocytes per slide under a Nikon (Tokyo, Japan) light microscope
at a magnification of 400. The average of three slides
was calculated.