Background & objectives: Sandflies are reported as the vectors of different kinds of leishmaniasis to human.There are foci of the disease in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the fauna and species compositionof sandflies to find the probable vectors of leishmaniasis in Nikshahr county, south-east of Iran, where cutaneousleishmaniasis is endemic.Methods: Sandflies were collected by sticky paper traps from 20 collection stations located in plain andmountainous area of Nikshahr county. The sex ratio and relative abundance of different species were alsodetermined.Results: A total of 11,455 sandflies revealed 23 species collected and identified. Phlebotomus alexandri, P.sergenti, P. papatasi, P. salehi, and P. keshishiani were the most important vector species found in this study.Interpretation & conclusion: During this survey 13 species are identified for the first time from Nikshahrcounty—P. bergeroti, P. eleanorae, P. keshishiani, P. halepensis, S. hodgsoni, S. christophersi, S. mervynae, S.dentata, S. dreyfussi, S. iranica, S. africana, S. grekovi and S. palestinensis, while P. keshishiani is an importantvector of visceral leishmaniasis in south of Iran. These data demonstrate five vectors of leishmaniasis areactive in the study area

H. Kassiri  , E. Javadian  & A.A. Hanafi-Bojd

Journal of Vector Borne Diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals

J Vector Borne Dis 48, September 2011, pp. 159–162Species composition of Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) inNikshahr county, south-eastern IranH. Kassiri1, E. Javadian2 & A.A. Hanafi-Bojd21School of Public Health, Ahwaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahwaz; 2Department of Medical Entomology and VectorControl, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranABSTRACTBackground & objectives: Sandflies are reported as the vectors of different kinds of leishmaniasis to human.There are foci of the disease in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the fauna and species compositionof sandflies to find the probable vectors of leishmaniasis in Nikshahr county, south-east of Iran, where cutaneousleishmaniasis is endemic.Methods: Sandflies were collected by sticky paper traps from 20 collection stations located in plain andmountainous area of Nikshahr county. The sex ratio and relative abundance of different species were alsodetermined.Results: A total of 11,455 sandflies revealed 23 species collected and identified. Phlebotomus alexandri, P.sergenti, P. papatasi, P. salehi, and P. keshishiani were the most important vector species found in this study.Interpretation & conclusion: During this survey 13 species are identified for the first time from Nikshahrcounty—P. bergeroti, P. eleanorae, P. keshishiani, P. halepensis, S. hodgsoni, S. christophersi, S. mervynae, S.dentata, S. dreyfussi, S. iranica, S. africana, S. grekovi and S. palestinensis, while P. keshishiani is an importantvector of visceral leishmaniasis in south of Iran. These data demonstrate five vectors of leishmaniasis areactive in the study area.Key words   Iran; Nikshahr; sandfly; species compositionINTRODUCTIONPhlebotomine sandflies are vectors of some diseasesincluding leishmaniasis, bartonellosis and sand fly feverto human. More than 700 species of sandflies are recordedaround the world1. In Iran, there are 52 reported speciesof sandflies belonging to the subgenera Adlerius,Euphlebotomus, Larrousius, Paraphlebotomus, Phleboto-mus, Synphlebotomus, Grassomyia, Parrotomyia,Parvidens, Rondanomyia, Sergentomyia and Sintonius2.Phlebotomus papatasi and P. salehi are the main and sec-ondary vectors of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL)caused by Leishmania major in Iran, respectively. Leish-mania major is also isolated from P. caucasicus groupand P. ansarii in rodent burrows3,4. In case ofanthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL), P. sergentiis the main proven vector in Iran5,6. There are four speciesof sandflies involved in the transmission of visceral leish-maniasis to humans.  They include P. major, P.keshishiani, P. kandellakii and P. perfiliewi. However,L. infantum that causes visceral leishmaniasis has beenisolated from P. alexandri 7-9. Cutaneous leishmaniasishas newly emerged in rural areas of Mirjaveh, Chabaharand Konarak districts, around the Nikshahr county, Sistanand Baluchistan province10,11.The aim of this study was to determine the fauna andspecies composition of Phlebotomine sandflies in Nikshahrcounty, south-eastern part of Iran, where some foci of cu-taneous leishmaniasis are reported and population ex-change with endemic areas of cutaneous leishmaniasis inPakistan and Afghanistan exists.MATERIAL & METHODSStudy areaNikshahr county is located in Sistan and Baluchistanprovince, south-east of Iran. Latitude and longitude of thecenter of the county is 36o 14’N and 60 o 13’E. It has23,930 km2 space and 510 m altitude from the sea level.Based on the last census of 2006 the population of thiscounty was 187,313. This county has three cities ofNikshahr, Qasreqand and Fanooj, 16 rural districts and816 villages. The study area has a dry and warm weatherin summer and temperate during winters. It has two eco-systems in plain and mountainous areas. Scattered rain-fall happens in summer and winter and total annual pre- J Vector Borne Dis 48, September 2011160cipitation is about 150 mm. The climate of the county isclassified as very warm desert. The average temperatureduring the year is 28oC with minimum and maximum of 3and 49oC, respectively. The annual average relative hu-midity is 36.8%.MethodsSandflies were caught outdoors by sticky paper trapsfrom rodent burrows, caves, cracks of rocks, and holesacross the riverside in different hilly and plain areas ofNikshahr county, during 6 months of spring and summer.These traps were easier to use than the light-traps in thisarea, because of some local difficulties. Collection siteswere: Nikshahr, Qasreqand, Ab-band, Holonchegan,Zeineddin, Hichan, Tange-sarhe, Takht-e-Malek, Mahban,Keshik, Orang, Kooshk, Kahoorakan, Chahan, Fanooj,Bent, Chanef, Ramazan kalak, Peap and Espeke. Trapswere installed before sunset and collected before sunrise.Sandflies were removed by needle and put in acetone towash the oil on their bodies and then transferred and pre-served in 70% ethanol. In the laboratory, they weremounted in the Puri’s medium and identified using identi-fication key12. Sex ratio of all the species was calculatedas:  No. of males/No. of females  × 100RESULTSA total of 1540 sticky traps were installed during thestudy period at 20 collection sites and 11,455 sandfliesfalling in 23 species were caught (Table 1). Twenty-sevenpercent of the specimens were Phlebotomus species whileTable1. Species composition, abundance and sex ratio ofphlebotomine sand flies in Nikshahr countysouth-east of IranSpecies No. Relative Sex ratiofrequency (%)P. alexandri 1185 10.34 12.4P. bergeroti 13 0.11 0P. eleanorae 3 0.03 –P. halepensis 1 0.01 0P. kazeruni 348 3.04 7.1P. keshishiani 2 0.02 0P. mesghali 277 2.42 50.5P. papatasi 359 3.14 19.7P. salehi 8 0.07 0P. sergenti 893 7.79 10.7S. africana 6 0.05 200S. baghdadis 304 2.65 56.7S. christophersi 632 5.52 101.3S. clydei 742 6.47 65.3S. dentata 125 1.10 40.4S. dreyfussi 49 0.43 600S. grekovi 1 0.01 0S. hodgsoni 1496 13.06 74.2S. iranica 29 0.26 0S. mervynae 228 1.99 385.1S. palestinensis 1 0.01 –S. sintoni 1019 8.89 104.2S. tiberiadis 3734 32.59 64.3Total 11455 100 –Fig. 1: Species composition of Sergentomyia spp in different geographical places of Nikshahr county,southern Iran73% were Sergentomyia. Phlebotomus alexandri andS. tiberiadis were the most common species amongPhlebotomus and Sergentomyia genera, respectively 161Kassiri et al: Phlebotomine sandflies in south-eastern Iran(Table 1). Sex ratio for different species is alsoshown in Table 1. The highest sex ratio was 600 forS. dreyfussi.A total of 9955 sandflies representing 22 species werecollected in hilly and mountainous area, while 1500 speci-mens including 13 species were captured in plain area.Sergentomyia dentata, S. dreyfussi, S. grekovi, S. iranica,S. mervynae, S. palestinensis, P. eleanorae, P. halepensis,P. keshishiani and P. mesghali were collected only inmountainous area, while P. salehi alone was found in plainarea. Phlebotomus alexandri (98%), P. bergeroti (92.3%),P. kazeruni (99.4%), P. papatasi (65.2%), P. sergenti(97%), S. africana (83.3%), S. baghdadis (98.7%), S.christophersi (99.7%), S. clydei (62.5%), S. hodgsoni(99.7%), S. mervynae (98.7%) and S. tiberiadis (99.3%)were mainly distributed in the hilly and mountainous ar-eas (Figs. 1 and 2).DISCUSSIONBoth forms of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasesare endemic in Iran and so determining the fauna ofsandflies in different parts of the country indicates thepotential for establishment of a new focus of the disease.In the current survey, 13 sandfly species were identifiedfor the first time from Nikshahr county. These include P.bergeroti, P. eleanorae, P. keshishiani, P. halepensis, S.hodgsoni, S. christophersi, S. mervynae, S. dentata, S.dreyfussi, S. iranica, S. africana, S. grekovi and S.palestinensis. These species must add to 22 sandfly spe-cies of the province that have been reported in previousstudies11,13.In the current study, five proven vectors of cutaneousand visceral leishmaniasis in Iran, P. papatasi, P. salehi,P. sergenti, P. alexandri and P. keshishiani were collected.These species are reported as vectors of leishmaniasis indifferent parts of Iran6,8, 14-17. A newly reported focus ofZCL is located in Mirjaveh district10, north-east ofNikshahr, although another study showed the disease isendemic in Chabahar and Konarak counties, south of thestudy area11. In these foci, gerbil borrows housingMeriones hurrianae and Tatera indica can be found fre-quently. Kasiri and Javadian16 reported the natural lepto-monad infection of P. papatasi and P. salehi from thegerbil burrows of Chabahar county. This may be an alarmfor extension of ZCL to neighbor counties, such asNikshahr, because of the migration behavior of the ger-bils.The number and species of sandflies collected in themountainous and hilly area was more than that of plainarea. This may be due to bionomics of the capturedsandflies, while the mountainous area has different mi-cro-habitats for reproduction of these insects. Due to lim-ited availability of congenial environmental conditions andbreeding habitats in the plain area, less number of speciesare reported than the mountainous area.South-eastern corner of Iran is located in the orientalregion of the world, like Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.Check-list of phlebotomine sandflies in Baluchistan ofPakistan, close to our study area shows 23 species includ-ing 7 Phlebotomus and 16 Sergentomyia18. A study onsandflies in arid and semi-arid areas of Rajasthan of IndiaFig. 2: Species composition of Phlebotomus spp in different geographical places, Nikshahr county,southern Iran J Vector Borne Dis 48, September 2011162reported 14 species, among them P. papatasi, P. sergenti,S. clydei, S. baghdadis and S. christophersi19 were com-mon in the collected species. Sandfly fauna of an endemicfocus for visceral leishmaniasis in Bangladesh includes 9species20. Some species of our study are the same with theabove mentioned surveys.Illegal immigration from Afghanistan and Pakistan,where the cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic,21,22 to theNikshahr is another potential risk factor for establishingthe cutaneous leishmaniasis in the area, because both P.sergenti and P. papatasi, the vectors of L. tropica and L.major are present in this part of the country.More detailed studies on leptomonad infection of thesuspected vector species, fauna and parasitic infection ofthe potential reservoir hosts of the cutaneous leishmania-sis are suggested to find the epidemiological aspects ofthe disease in this county.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe authors would like to thank personnel of IranshahrHealth Research Station, National Institute of Health Re-search, for their cooperation during the survey. This projectwas financially supported by the Deputy of Research,School of Public Health, Tehran University of MedicalSciences, Tehran, Iran.REFERENCES1. Lane RP. Sandflies (Phlebotominae). In: Lane RP, Crosskey RW,editors. Medical insects and arachnids. London, UK: Chapmanand Hall p. 92–6.2. Kasiri H, Javadian E, Seyedi-Rashti MA. Liste desPhlebotominae (Diptera: Psychodidae) d’lran. Bull Soc PatholExot 2000; 93(2): 129–30.3. Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR, Javadian E, Tahvildare-Bidruni GH. Theisolation of Leishmania major from Phlebotomus(Paraphlebotomus) caucasicus in Isfahan Province, IslamicRepublic of Iran. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1994; 88: 518–9.4. Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR, Javadian E. Seasonal variation of Leish-mania major infection rates in sandflies from rodent burrows inIsfahan province, Iran. Med Vet Entomol 1996; 10: 181–4.5. Seyedi-Rashti MA, Keighobadi K, Nadim A. Urban cutaneousleishmaniasis in Kerman, southeast Iran. Bull Soc Pathol Exot1984; 77: 312–9.6. Oshaghi MA, Rasolian M, Shirzadi MR, Mohtarami F, DoostiS. First report on isolation of Leishmania tropica from sandfliesof a classical urban cutaneous leishmaniasis focus in southernIran. Exp Parasitol 2010; 126(4): 445–50.7. Rassi Y, Hanafi-Bojd AA.  Phlebotomine sandflies, vectors ofleishmaniasis: morphology, biology and ecology. Tehran, Iran:Noavaran-e-Elm Publication 2006; p. 251.8. Azizi K, Rassi Y, Javadian E, Motazedian MH, Rafizadeh S,Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR, Mohebali M. Phlebotomus(Paraphlebotomus) alexandri: a probable vector of Leishmaniainfantum in Iran. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 2006; 100(1): 63–8.9. Azizi K, Rassi Y, Javadian E, Motazedian MH, Asgari Q,Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR. First detection of Leishmania infantumin Phlebotomus (Larroussius) major (Diptera: Psychodidae) fromIran. J Med Entomol 2008; 45(4): 726–31.10. Fazaeli A, Fouladi B, Hashemi-Shahri SM, Sharifi I. Clinicalfeatures of cutaneous leishmaniasis and direct PCR based iden-tification of parasite species in a new focus in southeast of Iran.Iranian J Public Health 2008; 37(3): 44–51.11. Seyedi-Rashti MA, Nadim A. Cutaneous leishmaniasis inBaluchistan, Iran. International Congress for Tropical Medi-cine and Malaria. Calgary, Canada, September 16–22, 1984;p. 124.12. Theodor O, Mesghali A. On the Phlebotominae of Iran. J MedEntomol 1964; 1: 285–300.13. Seyedi-Rashti MA, Nadim A. A new species of Phlebotomus(Diptera: Psychodidae) from Baluchistan, Iran. J Nat Hist 1970;4: 145–7.14. Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR, Javadian E, Tahvildare-Bidruni GH.Leishmania major MON-26 isolated from naturally infectedPhlebotomus papatasi (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Isfahan prov-ince, Iran. Acta Trop 1995; 59: 279–82.15. Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR, Akhavan AA. Entomological survey ofsandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a new focus of zoonotic cu-taneous leishmaniasis in Iran. Acta Trop 1999; 73: 321–6.16. Kasiri H, Javadian E. The natural leptomonad infection ofPhlebotomus papatasi and Phlebotomus salehi in endemic fociof cutaneous leishmaniasis in Sistan and Baluchistan province(Southeast of Iran). Iranian J Public Health 2000, 29(1–4): 15–20.17. Yaghoobi-Ershadi MR, Akhavan AA, Zahraei-Ramazani AR,Abai MR, Ebrahimi B, Vafaei-Nejad R, Hanafi-Bojd AA, JafariR. Epidemiological study in a new focus of cutaneous leishma-niasis in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Eastern Med Health J2003; 9(4): 816–26.18. Kakarsulemankhel JK. Check-list and distributional records ofphlebotomine sandflies from Baluchistan province, Pakistan(Diptera: Psychodidae). Pakistan J Biol Sci 2004; 7(4): 593–6.19. Kaul HN, Dhanda V, Modi GB. The phlebotomine sandflies(Diptera: Psychodidae) from Rajasthan, India, with descriptionof Sergentomyia (Sintonius) sirohi sp.  Indian J Med Res 1973;61(4): 528–39.20. Shafiul Alam M, Wagatsuma Y, Mondal D, Khanum H, HaqueR. Relationship between sandfly fauna and kala-azar endemic-ity in Bangladesh. Acta Trop 2009; 112: 23–5.21. Bhutto AM, Soomro FR, Baloch JH, Matsumoto J, Uezato H,Hashiguchi O, Katakura K. Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused byLeishmania (L.) major infection in Sindh province, Pakistan.Acta Trop 2009; 11: 295–8.22. Ruiz Postigo JA. Leishmaniasis in the World Health Organiza-tion Eastern Mediterranean Region. Int J Antimicrob Agents2010; 36(1): S62–5.Correspondence to: Dr Hamid Kassiri, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health, Ahwaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences,Ahwaz, Iran.E-mail: hamidka_2000@yahoo.comReceived: 7 February 2011 Accepted in revised form: 16 August 2011

Species composition of Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Nikshahr county, south-eastern Iran

http://doaj.org/search?source=%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22bool%22%3A%7B%22must%22%3A%5B%7B%22term%22%3A%7B%22id%22%3A%227ac274bb0ad84fb58a11c15ed872d8ee%22%7D%7D%5D%7D%7D%7D

Species composition of Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Nikshahr county, south-eastern Iran

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Directory of Open Access Journals