title: Seasonal variation in the prevalence of sand flies infected with Leishmania donovani.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is a life threatening neglected infectious disease in the Indian subcontinent, transmitted by the bite of female sand flies. Estimation of the infectivity in the vector population, collected in different seasons, may be useful to better understanding the transmission dynamics of VL as well as to plan vector control measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  We collected sand flies from highly endemic regions of Bihar state, India for one year over three seasons. The species of the sand flies were confirmed by species-specific PCR-RFLP. Leishmania donovani infection was investigated in 1397 female Phlebotomus argentipes using PCR, targeting the Leishmania specific minicircle of the kDNA region. Further, the parasitic load in the infected sand flies was measured using quantitative PCR.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Though sand flies were most abundant in the rainy season, the highest rate of infection was detected in the winter season with 2.84% sand flies infected followed by the summer and rainy seasons respectively. This study can help in vector elimination programmes and to reduce disease transmission.
authors.affiliation: Infectious Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. doctorshyamsundar@gmail.com
authors.forename: Puja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tiwary
authors.forename: Dinesh
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Mukesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: Rudra Pratap
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Madhukar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.forename: Shyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sundar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004199:Disease Vectors; D005260:Female; D007194:India; D007893:Leishmania donovani / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010691:Phlebotomus / Q000469:parasitology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D018105:DNA, Kinetoplast