title: [Blood feeding preference of Lutzomyia whitmani (Diptera, Psychodidae) in a transmission area for American cutaneous leishmaniasis in the State of Maranhão, Brazil].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós Graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luis, MA.
authors.forename: Raquel Silva
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Fonteles
authors.forename: Gabriel Costa E
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.forename: Patrícia Castelo Branco
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Azevêdo
authors.forename: Gildevan Nolasco
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Jorge Luiz Pinto
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Moraes
authors.forename: Elias Seixas
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Lorosa
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kuppinger
authors.forename: José Manuel Macário
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rebêlo
mesh_terms: 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