title: Phlebotomine sandfly fauna and natural Leishmania infection rates in a rural area of Cerrado (tropical savannah) in Nova Mutum, State of Mato Grosso in Brazil.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) has been reported in every municipality of the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil, but the transmission epidemiology remains poorly understood. Our study was developed in a rural area of the Nova Mutum municipality where four autochthonous cases of ACL were reported in 2009. Our aims were to describe the local phlebotomine sandfly fauna and to investigate the infection rates and infecting Leishmania species in the captured sandflies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Entomological captures were performed bimonthly at 10 fixed sites close to the edge of a forested area between June 2011 and April 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 3,743 phlebotomine sandflies belonging to 31 distinct species were captured. Approximately 75% of the specimens were females. The most abundant species (45.4%) was Lutzomyia antunesi, which was consistently captured at every site. Species that are epidemiologically important for ACL, such as L. flaviscutellata, L. whitmani and L. umbratilis, were also captured. L. antunesi and L. ubiquitalis were naturally infected by Leishmania braziliensis or Le. guyanensis, with minimum infection rates of 0.88% and 6.67%, respectively. Surprisingly, L. antunesi was infected by Le. infantum (synonym chagasi).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The natural infection of L. antunesi and L. ubiquitalis by Leishmania sp. suggests that these species might play a role in the zoonotic cycle of ACL in Nova Mutum. The presence of Le. infantum in L. antunesi suggests that there may be a risk of an outbreak of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Nova Mutum.
authors.affiliation: Curso de Pós Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil.
authors.forename: Sirlei Franck
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Thies
authors.forename: Ana Lucia Maria
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Érika  Monteiro
authors.initials: É
authors.lastname: Michalsky
authors.forename: Rosina Djunko
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Consuelo Latorre
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Fortes-Dias
authors.forename: Cor Jésus Fernandes
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Fontes
authors.forename: Edelberto Santos
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Dias
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000145:classification* / Q000469:parasitology; D007891:Leishmania / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000635:transmission; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011156:Population Density; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000145:classification* / Q000469:parasitology; D012424:Rural Population
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan