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      Molecular Survey of Leishmania Infection of Sand Flies in Karun County, Southwestern Iran

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          Abstract

          Background:

          Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is widely distributed in Iran and around the world. Also, Khuzestan Province is an endemic focus of ZCL. This study aims to investigate the natural infection of sand flies with the Leishmania parasite in Karun County.

          Methods:

          Sand flies were collected from Jangiyeh, Qaleh Chanan, Kut-e-Navaser, and Ghazavieh in the spring and summer in the year of 2019, by installing 60 sticky paper traps each time (30 traps outdoors and 30 traps indoors). Two hundred female sand flies with different abdominal conditions (empty, blood-fed, semi-gravid, and gravid) were examined for infection rate using the Nested-PCR method.

          Results:

          In this study, seven species of sand flies including Phlebotomus papatasi, Ph. alexandri, Ph. sergenti, Ph. caucasicus, Sergentomyia tiberiadis, Se. sintoni, and Se. antennata were reported from Karun County, with a frequency of 79.64%, 16.96%, 1.07%, 0.18%, 0.36%, 1.61%, and 0.18%, respectively. Only eleven specimens of Ph. papatasi were found to be positive for Leishmania major, with an overall infection rate of 7.8%. The infection of Ph. papatasi was specifically reported in blood-fed, gravid, and semi-gravid specimens, with infection rates of 17.02%, 4.35%, and 14.29%, respectively.

          Conclusion:

          In this study, the infection of L. major from Ph. papatasi was reported. The results can be used in planning the control of ZCL in the study area.

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          Most cited references36

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          Phlebotomine vectors of the leishmaniases: a review

          An account is given of work published during the past 10 years incriminating species of phlebotomine sandflies as vectors of Leishmania species which infect man. An assessment is made of the degrees of certainty of the vectorial roles of eighty-one species and subspecies of sandflies (thirty-seven Old World and forty-four New World) in the transmission of twenty-nine leishmanial parasites of mammals. At least one species of sandfly is considered to be a proven vector of each of ten parasites. Of the eighty-one sandfly taxa, evidence is judged to be sufficient to incriminate nineteen as proven vectors (eleven Phlebotomus species and eight Lutzomyia species or subspecies) and evidence for a further fourteen (nine Phlebotomus species and five Lutzomyia species or subspecies) is considered to be strong. The suggested criteria for incrimination of a vector are anthropophily and common infection with the same leishmanial parasite as that found in man in the same place. More weight should be given to natural infections persisting after the digestion of a bloodmeal than those in the presence of blood. Supporting evidence is a concordance in the distribution of the fly and the disease in man, proof that the fly feeds regularly on the reservoir host, a flourishing development of the parasite in infected flies and the experimental transmission of the parasite by the bite of the fly.
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            Phlebotomine Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Iran and their Role on Leishmania Transmission

            Sand fly research has a long history in Iran beginning with the work of Adler, Theodor and Lourie in 1930 and followed by Mesghali’s foundational taxonomic work on sand flies in 1943. Since then, research has been continued unabated throughout the country and official publications report the existence of at least 44 species of sand flies (26 of the genus Phlebotomus and 18 of genus Sergentomyia) in Iran. So far, seven Phlebotomus species and one Sergentomyia species have been collected and described by Iranian researchers for the first time. Natural promastigote infections have been repeatedly found in 13 species of sand flies and modern molecular techniques are used routinely to characterize Leishmania parasite isolates from endemic areas of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis. Because of anthropogenic environmental modifications or human population movements, data on phlebotomine sand flies should be regularly updated and verified at least every five years by fieldwork and taxonomy in foci of leishmaniasis, to incriminate vector species of relevance to the ecology of transmission and to support development and implementation of control programs.
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              Detection and identification of Leishmania DNA within naturally infected sand flies by seminested PCR on minicircle kinetoplastic DNA.

              A seminested PCR assay was developed in order to amplify the kinetoplast minicircle of Leishmania species from individual sand flies. The kinetoplast minicircle is an ideal target because it is present in 10,000 copies per cell and its sequence is known for most Leishmania species. The two-step PCR is carried out in a single tube using three primers, which were designed within the conserved area of the minicircle and contain conserved sequence blocks. The assay was able to detect as few as 3 parasites per individual sand fly and to amplify minicircle DNA from at least eight Leishmania species. This technique permits the processing of a large number of samples synchronously, as required for epidemiological studies, in order to study infection rates in sand fly populations and to identify potential insect vectors. Comparison of the sequences obtained from sand flies and mammal hosts will be crucial for developing hypotheses about the transmission cycles of Leishmania spp. in areas of endemicity.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                J Arthropod Borne Dis
                J Arthropod Borne Dis
                JAD
                Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases
                Tehran University of Medical Sciences
                2322-1984
                2322-2271
                March 2024
                31 March 2024
                : 18
                : 1
                : 37-46
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Health Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
                [2 ]Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
                [3 ]Parasitology Department, School of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
                Author notes
                [* ] Corresponding author: Dr Elham Jahanifard, E-mail: jahanifard-e@ 123456ajums.ac.ir
                Article
                JAD-18-37
                10.18502/jad.v18i1.15670
                11239367
                a5dd9da8-2486-4895-9b74-1ccfb7dffb39
                Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

                This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 03 September 2023
                : 13 March 2024
                Categories
                Original Article

                Infectious disease & Microbiology
                leishmania,sand fly,karun,khuzestan
                Infectious disease & Microbiology
                leishmania, sand fly, karun, khuzestan

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