Phlebotomine sandfly fauna and natural Leishmania infection rates in a rural area of Cerrado (tropical savannah) in Nova Mutum, State of Mato Grosso in Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) has been reported in every municipality of the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, but the transmission epidemiology remains poorly understood. Our study was developed in a rural area of the Nova Mutum municipality where four autochthonous cases of ACL were reported in 2009. Our aims were to describe the local phlebotomine sandfl y fauna and to investigate the infection rates and infecting Leishmania species in the captured sandfl ies. Methods: Entomological captures were performed bimonthly at 10 fi xed sites close to the edge of a forested area between June 2011 and April 2012. Results: A total of 3,743 phlebotomine sandfl ies belonging to 31 distinct species were captured. Approximately 75% of the specimens were females. The most abundant species (45.4%) was Lutzomyia antunesi, which was consistently captured at every site. Species that are epidemiologically important for ACL, such as L. fl aviscutellata, L. whitmani and L. umbratilis, were also captured. L. antunesi and L. ubiquitalis were naturally infected by Leishmania braziliensis or Le. guyanensis, with minimum infection rates of 0.88% and 6.67%, respectively. Surprisingly, L. antunesi was infected by Le. infantum (synonym chagasi). Conclusions: The natural infection of L. antunesi and L. ubiquitalis by Leishmania sp. suggests that these species might play a role in the zoonotic cycle of ACL in Nova Mutum. The presence of Le. infantum in L. antunesi suggests that there may be a risk of an outbreak of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Nova Mutum.

Sandfly fauna (Diptera: Psychodidae) from caves in the state of Rondônia, Brazil

“…This species was found with Leishmania sp. (THIES et al, 2013) and is a vector for L. (V.) lindenbergi Silveira, Ishikawa, Souza & Lainson in Brazil (SILVEIRA et al, 2002). Nyssomyia shawi is considered to be a suspected vector of L. (V.) braziliensis in Bolivia (BUSTAMANTE et al, 2012).…”

First description of Migonemyia migonei (França) and Nyssomyia whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho) (Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) natural infected by Leishmania infantum in Argentina

“…Several reports had described natural infection caused by L. infantum in L. longipalpis (Acardi et al, 2010;Saraiva et al, 2010;Savani et al, 2009) and other Phlebotomine sandflies, including: L. cruzi (Pita-Pereira et al, 2008), Lutzomyia forattinii (Pita-Pereira et al, 2008), Lutzomyia almerioi (Savani et al, 2009), Nyssomyia antunesi (Thies et al, 2013), Nyssomyia intermedia (Saraiva et al, 2010), N. whitmani (Saraiva et al, 2010), M. migonei (Carvalho et al, 2010), Evandromyia cortelezzii (Carvalho et al, 2008) and Evandromyia termitophila (Saraiva et al, 2010). Although M. migonei (Carvalho et al, 2010) and N. whitmani (Saraiva et al, 2010) have already been found with L. infantum infection, this is the first report of L. infantum natural infection for Argentina in these species.…”

Vertical stratification of sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in riparian forests between the Amazon and northeast Brazil

“…Considering that in the state of Maranhão, Lu. antunesi is also abundant at ground level (Rebêlo et al ), the vertical transmission of CL can occur, as this vector is incriminated in the transmission of this disease in Brazil (Thies et al ).…”