Four types of commercial mosquito control traps, the Mosquito Magnet Pro (MMP), the Sentinel 360 (S360), the BG-Sentinel (BGS), and the Mega-Catch Ultra (MCU), were compared with a standard Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light trap for efficacy in collecting phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a small farming village in the Nile River Valley 10 km north of Aswan,...

BACKGROUND Leishmania parasites are transmitted in the presence of sand fly saliva. Together with the parasite, the sand fly injects biologically active salivary components that favorably change the environment at the feeding site. Exposure to bites or to salivary proteins results in immunity specific to these components. Mice immunized with Phlebotomus papatasi salivary gland homogenate (SGH) ...

The Amazon forest is being exploited for timber production. The harvest removes trees, used by sand flies as resting sites, and decreases the canopy, used as refuges by some hosts. The present study evaluated the impact of the timber harvest, the abundance of sand flies, and their trypanosomatid infection rates before and after selective logging. The study was accomplished in terra-firme produc...

Catches of mosquitoes and sand flies in CO, traps baited with three different lures and an unbaited control were compared. The lures examined were carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide plus l-octen-3-ol, and carbon dioxide plus human hair in ethanol. Studies using a 4 x 4 Latin square design, with 3 sets of 4 consecutive trap nights, were conducted between August 6 and September 10, 2007. The study si...

BACKGROUND Research in our laboratory has previously shown that immune-mediated transmission blocking may be applied to Leishmania infections and that the LPG molecule and anti-LPG monoclonal antibodies was found to be an excellent candidate against L. major infections. OBJECTIVE To test the effect of monoclonal antibodies (MABs) raised against different species of Leishmania for their abilit...

Pathogens transmitted to humans by phlebotomine sand flies are neglected, as they cause infectious diseases that are not on the priority list of national and international public health systems. However, the infections caused by protozoa of the Leishmania genus and viruses belonging to the Phlebovirus genus (family Phenuiviridae)-the most significant group of viruses transmitted by sand flies-h...

BACKGROUND Old world Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) is a vector-borne human disease caused by Leishmania major, a unicellular eukaryotic parasite transmitted by pool blood-feeding sand flies mainly to wild rodents, such as Psammomys obesus. The human beings who share the rodent and sand fly habitats can be subverted as both sand fly blood resource. ZCL is endemic in the Middle East, Cen...

BACKGROUND Carrion' disease, caused by Bartonella bacilliformis, remains truly neglected due to its focal geographical nature. A wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, including asymptomatic bacteremia, and lack of a sensitive diagnostic test can potentially lead to a spread of the disease into non-endemic regions where competent sand fly vectors may be present. A reliable test capable of de...

Two forms of leishmaniasis are endemic to the Jenin district in the northern region of the West Bank. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), caused by Leishmania infantum, mainly affects infants. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) affects a broader age group and is probably caused by L. tropica. Although the Jenin district is the most important focus of leishmaniasis in the West Bank, the sand fly fauna of the...

b a ckground: stigmaeids mites have been recorded only on phlebotominae sand flies up to now. five species of eu stigmaeus , and three of stigmaeus were reported on infested sandflies in different country up to the present. methods: sand flies collection was done using cdc light trap and sticky paper. the mites were isolated from in- fested specimens, mounted in puri’s medium and identified usi...