background: ectoparasites of mammalian hosts play an important role for transmission of diseases from the host res­ervoirs to human. the aim of this study was to determine the species composition and infestation parameters for para­sitic arthropods associated with rhombomys opimus. methods: ectoparasites of r. opimus were collected from seven endemic district of zcl in iran including shirvan an...

background: sand fly saliva helps parasite establishment and induce immune responses in vertebrate hosts. in the current study, we investigated the modulation of phlebotomus papatasi salivary gland antigen expression by sea­sonal and biological factors. methods: sand flies were grouped according to physiological stages such as unfed, fed, semi-gravid, gravid, parous, nulliparous, infected or no...

In the present study, Kabir kuh Section, related to the Seymareh or Lopha Limestone member (Gurpi Formation) have been Selected. The member has yielded a rich echinoid fauna and 21 species of Echinoid belonging to 14 genera are recognized and described. The Kabir Kuh section yielded two regular echinoid taxa: Salenia nutrix and Goniopygus superbus, one holectypoid taxa: Coptodiscus noemiae, two...

BACKGROUND Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is a polymorphic disease which may show various symptoms. Genetic diversity of the parasite is suggested to be one of the factors influencing the clinical manifestation of the disease. METHODS This study used PCR for the detection and identification of leishmanial parasites at the species level and applied a multilocus microsatellite typing ap...

background: zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (zcl) is an expanding disease and public health problem in iran. in the current study, natural leishmania infection rate and seasonal fluctuation of the infection in rhombomys opimus population of a hyperendemic focus of zcl in iran was investigated. methods:   the study was conducted from october 2006 to october 2008 in esfahan province, central par...

In central Asia, the great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) is the main host for the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the cause of bubonic plague. In order to prevent plague outbreaks, monitoring of the great gerbil has been carried out in Kazakhstan since the late 1940s. We use the resulting data to demonstrate that climate forcing synchronizes the dynamics of gerbils over large geographical areas. As it i...

AIM The spatial structure of a population can strongly influence the dynamics of infectious diseases, yet rarely is the underlying structure quantified. A case in point is plague, an infectious zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Plague dynamics within the Central Asian desert plague focus have been extensively modelled in recent years, but always with strong uniformity as...