Phlebotomine fauna, natural infection rate and feeding habits of Lutzomyia cruzi in Jaciara, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil

Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Brazil is transmitted by the phlebotomine Lutzomyia longipalpis and in some midwestern regions by Lutzomyia cruzi. Studies of the phlebotomine fauna, feeding habits and natural infection rate by Leishmania contribute to increased understanding of the epidemiological chain of leishmaniases and their vectorial capacity. Collections were performed in Jaciara, state of Mato Grosso from 2010-2013, during which time 2,011 phlebotomines (23 species) were captured (68.70% Lu. cruzi and 20.52% Lutzomyia whitmani). Lu. cruzi females were identified by observing the shapes of the cibarium (a portion of the mouthpart) and spermatheca, from which samples were obtained for polymerase chain reaction to determine the rates of natural infection. Engorged phlebotomines were assessed to identify the blood-meal host by ELISA. A moderate correlation was discovered between the number of Lu. cruzi and the temperature and the minimum rate of infection was 6.10%. Twenty-two females were reactive to the antisera of bird (28%), dog (3.30%) and skunk (1.60%). We conclude that Lu. cruzi and Lu. whitmani have adapted to the urban environment in this region and that Lu. cruzi is the most likely vector of VL in Jaciara. Moreover, maintenance of Leishmania in the environment is likely aided by the presence of birds and domestic and synanthropic animals.

Epidemiological aspects of Leishmaniasis in the Pantanal region of Mato Grosso

“…Lutzomyia longipalpis, the main vector in Brazil, is present in most member states, demonstrating the high adaptability to different types of vegetation, climates, habitats and food availability (LAINSON & RANGEL, 2005;FALCÃO DE OLIVEIRA et al, 2017). Lutzomyia cruzi is the Leishmania infantum vector in some areas of Mato Grosso do Sul (FALCÃO DE OLIVEIRA et al, 2017) and Mato Grosso (BRITO et al, 2014b). The highest frequency of L. cruzi was found in municipalities within Pantanal and Cerrado, indicating that these are the preferred environments of this species (MISSAWA & LIMA, 2006).…”

Leishmania chagasi in dogs from the city of Jaciara, Mato Grosso, Brazil

“…The observation that 96.04% of PCR positives were associated with seropositive dogs confirms the occurrence of the infection, despite of the possibility of cross-reactivity in serological tests as recommended by the Ministry of Health (BRAZIL, 2006;MADEIRA et al, 2009). This finding also enabled the identification of the L. chagasi species in domestic reservoirs in Jaciara, which were previously found only in the vector (BRITO et al, 2014b).…”

“…The municipality of Jaciara has presented VL cases since 2003 with a prevalence of 54.7% CVL (BRITO et al, 2014a;2014b;LOPES et al, 2014) species in dogs. In this context, the aim of this study was to identify the Leishmania species in domestic dogs in the urban Jaciara area by PCR and to evaluate the use of this diagnostic technique in different tissues.…”

Contribution to the Knowledgment of Feeding Habbits of Lutzomyia (Lutzomyia) Longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva, 1912) in Association to Natural Infection by Leishmania (Leishmania) Infantum Chagasi (Cunha & Chagas, 1937)

“…Several methods are used to identify eating habits in phlebotomines, such as immunological methods, through the precipitin technique [4,8,11,[28][29][30] and immunoenzymatic tests [7,9,15,[31][32]; and recently molecular methods using PCR [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. Studies that seek to determine the dietary pattern of phlebotomines are of great ecological and epidemiological relevance, since they may at the same time increase the knowledge about the habits of this vector, but mainly suggest potential reservoirs of Leishmania spp., which can help in the planning of better strategies [11,33,37,40].…”