[Blood feeding preference of Lutzomyia whitmani (Diptera, Psychodidae) in a transmission area for American cutaneous leishmaniasis in the State of Maranhão, Brazil].
The aim of this study was to determine the sources of blood meals for females of Lutzomyia whitmani, a phlebotomine species incriminated as the main vector for American cutaneous leishmaniasis in Maranhão. For this, 70 Lutzomyia whitmani females were collected in the municipality of Axixá, an area with one of the greatest numbers of cases of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in humans in Maranhão. They were analyzed using the precipitin technique. Ninety percent of the specimens showed a reaction to some type of antiserum positive immune reaction, among which 73% presented single reactions, with predominance for chicken blood (22%), rodent blood (14.3%) and human blood (12.7%). Among the double reactions, the predominant combinations were chicken/human (6.3%), chicken/opossum (4.8%), ox/human (3.2%) and opossum/human (3.2%). Thus, we conclude that humans and domestic and synanthropic animals are blood meal sources for Lutzomyia whitmani and may play an important role in the transmission cycle for American cutaneous leishmaniasis, thus explaining the cases of this disease in Axixá.
Fonteles
Raquel Silva
RS
Programa de Pós Graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luis, MA.
Vasconcelos
Gabriel Costa E
GC
Azevêdo
Patrícia Castelo Branco
PC
Lopes
Gildevan Nolasco
GN
Moraes
Jorge Luiz Pinto
JL
Lorosa
Elias Seixas
ES
Kuppinger
Oliver
O
Rebêlo
José Manuel Macário
JM
D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D002417:Cattle; D002645:Chickens; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000502:physiology*; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000635:transmission; D009893:Opossums; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000502:physiology*; D012377:Rodentia; D013552:Swine