Phlebotomine sandflies of the genus Sergentomyia are widely distributed throughout the Old World. It has been suggested that Sergentomyia spp are involved in the transmission of Leishmania in India and Africa, whereas Phlebotomus spp are thought to be the sole vectors of Leishmania in the Old World. In this study, Leishmania major DNA was detected in one Sergentomyia minuta specimen that was co...

BACKGROUND Cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania major has become a hot topic in Iran. The objective of this study was to determine some ecological aspects of sand flies in the study area. METHODS Sand flies were collected biweekly from indoors and outdoors fixed places in the selected villages, using 30 sticky paper traps from the beginning to the end of the active season of 2006 in Kerm...

Background: Geographical distribution of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) has continuously been extended in recent years in Iran. The Beiza District is one of the newly-emerged endemic foci of ZCL in southern Iran. The main aim of the present study was to detect the vector(s) of ZCL in this area. Methods: To detect the fauna and vectors of ZCL in this district, sand flies were cau...

Leishmania parasites are inoculated into host skin together with sand fly saliva and multiple exposures to uninfected sand fly bites protect mice against Leishmania infection. However, sand fly vectors differ in composition of the saliva and therefore the protection elicited by their salivary proteins was shown to be species-specific. On the other hand, the optimal vaccine based on sand fly sal...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a major vector-borne disease in Iran. A focus of VL is present in Shahreza county, Isfahan province, central Iran. The main objective of this study was to determine the probable vectors in this area. METHODS Sand flies were collected biweekly using sticky paper traps, CDC light-traps, and aspirators from outdoors as well as indoors. All f...

background: zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (zcl) due to leishmania major is increasing in many parts of iran. this disease originally is a disease found in gerbils. leishmania parasites are transmitted by sandflies that live and breed in gerbil burrows. nested pcr amplified leishmania its1-5.8s rrna gene in both main reservoir host “rhombomys opimus” and in the “phlebotomus papatasi” main vec...

The incidence of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis has not only been recognized but is, in fact, increasing in territories of northern continental Italy previously regarded as non-endemic. Recent findings of sporadic autochthonous canine infections and the presence of phlebotomine vectors in some provinces of north-eastern Italy have stimulated risk assessment for the spreading of leishmaniasis i...

in a sand-fly survey, conducted for two years (1992-93) in ghirkarzjn, fars province a total of 1020 female phlebotomus keshishiani were dissected, of which 12 females were found to have promastigotes. promastigotes of six pb. keshishiani were inoculated to six hamsters and one hamster became infected, amastigotes were observed in the spleen, but the culture of parasite was not possible due to ...