Sand flies are very common in the region of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, an important tourist attraction in Brazil. However, the role of some species and their relative importance locally in Leishmania Ross 1903 transmission is unclear. The objective of this study was to identify Leishmania infection in phlebotomine sand flies collected around the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, an important conservation area and popular international/national tourist destination with a high incidence of leishmaniasis. Sand flies were collected in peridomiciliary areas on the tourist route from September 2012 to August 2013. The captured females were subjected to molecular analyses for the detection of Leishmania DNA. Sand flies were infected with four Leishmania species: Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis (Vianna, 1911) was found in Lutzomyia whitmani (Antunes and Coutinho, 1939) (2.1%) and Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz and Neiva, 1912) (1.7%); Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum (Nicole, 1908) infected Lutzomyia wellcomei (Fraiha, Shaw, and Lainson, 1971) (20%), Lutzomyia sordellii (Shannon and Del Ponte, 1927) (4.3%), Lu. longipalpis (3.7%), and Lu. whitmani (0.8%); Leishmania (Leishmania) amazonensis (Lainson & Shaw, 1972) was found in Lu. whitmani (0.58%), while Leishmania (Viannia) lainsoni infected Lutzomyia evandroi (Costa Lima and Antunes, 1936) (3.4%), Lu. longipalpis (1.06%), and Lu. whitmani (0.29%). The occurrence of these parasites requires control measures to reduce the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis and to contain a possible epidemic of visceral leishmaniasis, the most severe form of the disease.
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20 February 2018
Molecular Identification of Leishmania spp. in Sand Flies (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) in the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil
Adalberto Alves Pereira-Filho,
Raquel Silva Fonteles,
Maria da Conceição Abreu Bandeira,
Jorge Luiz Pinto Moraes,
José Manuel Macário Rebêlo,
Maria Norma Melo
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Journal of Medical Entomology
Vol. 55 • No. 4
July 2018
Vol. 55 • No. 4
July 2018
Leishmania
Lutzomyia
natural infection
PCR