Original Articles
Ali Chegeni Sharafi, Mohammad
Abstract
In recent years the number of reported cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Lorestan province, western, Iran has taken an upward turn and some cases of disease have also been reported from Poledokhtar, Boroujerd and Doroud counties. It seems that Poledokhtar County is one of the endemic foci of the disease. Awareness of the ecological situation of the sandflies has a critical role in the control of Leishmaniasis disease. This study aimed to investigate the ecology of vectors of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Lorestan province, western Iran. In the present study the sandflies were collected and identified once every two weeks using sticky traps installed in human dwellings, animal dwellings and rodent nests. Our aim was identifying the species of leishmaniasis vectors, the abundance of sand flies to sticky traps and seasonal activities of sandflies. To determine the genus and species, the sand flies were placed on a slide containing a drop of 9 per thousand physiologic serum. After installing 1274 sticky traps a total of 4449 Phlebotomus sandflies were collected and identified from the predetermined locations In order to determine the fauna. From all the samples collected 2696 (60.60%) were male and 1753 (39.40%) were female. 1562 (35.11%) sandflies were collected from indoor dwellings and 2887 (64.89%) were collected from outdoor dwellings. The female phlebotomus Papatasi species was determined as the dominant genus of the region with 3036 cases. These Insects can be a vector of cutaneous leishmaniasis.