BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) play main role in the transmission of different forms of leishmaniasis in the world. Phlebotomus papatasi is the main vector of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in Iran. There are several control measures for vector control using different classes of insecticides. The aim of this study was to breed the sandflies which w...

A faunistic study of Phlebotominae (Diptera: Psychodidae) sand flies was carried out in northern Cyprus. A total of 12,517 sand flies (3,285 males and 9,232 females) was collected from 20 different localities in July and September 2004. Nine species belonging to genus Phlebotomus and 3 species of genus Sergentomyia were identified. Of these, the presence of the species Phlebotomus neglectus Ton...

BACKGROUND Visceral leishmaniasis is caused by Leishmania infantum, transmitted to humans by bites of phlebotomine sand flies and is one of the most important public health problems in Iran. To identify the vector(s), an investigation was carried out in Bilesavar District, one of the important foci of the disease in Ardebil Province in northwestern Iran, during July-September 2008. METHODS Us...

Individual, naturally occurring Phlebotomus mongolensis and Phlebotomus caucasicus from Iran were screened for infections with the maternally inherited intracellular Rickettsia-like bacterium Wolbachia pipientis via targeting a major surface protein gene (wsp). The main objective of this study was to determine if W. pipientis could be detected in these species. The sandflies were screened using...

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a very complex disease involving multiple factors that limit its emergence and spatial distribution. Prediction of cutaneous leishmaniasis epidemics in Tunisia remains difficult because most of the epidemiological tools used so far are descriptive in nature and mainly focus on a time dimension. The purpose of this work is to predict the potential geographic distributi...

BACKGROUND Microbes particularly bacteria presenting in the gut of haematophagous insects may have an important role in the epidemiology of human infectious disease. METHODS The microbial flora of gut and surrounding environmental of a laboratory strain of Phlebotomus papatasi, the main vector of Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) in the old world, was investigated. Biochemical reactions ...

During summer 2007, a total of 785 phlebotomine flies were trapped in northern Algeria, identified morphologically, organised as monospecific pools and tested for the presence of phlebovirus RNA using degenerate primers. Three pools were positive, and the corresponding PCR products were cloned and sequenced. Viral sequences corresponding to two phleboviruses distinct from each other were detect...