title: Effect of environmental disturbance on the population of sandflies and leishmania transmission in an endemic area of Venezuela.
abstract: The exploitation of new wilderness areas with crops is increasing and traditional crop substitution has been modified by new more productive crops. The results show the anthropogenic disturbance effect on the sandflies population and Leishmania transmission in endemic areas of Venezuela. Three agroecosystems with variable degrees of ecological disturbance, forest (conserved), cacao (fragmented), and orangery (disturbed), were selected. Four methods to sandfly capture were used; the specimens were identified and infected with Leishmania. Diversity, population structure, ANOVA, Tukey test, and simple correlation analysis were carried out. Shannon traps were able to capture 94.7% of the total sandflies, while CDC light traps, Sticky traps, and direct suction just captured 2.2%, 1.2%, and 0.9%, respectively. The results showed the effect of ecological disturbance degree on the composition of sandflies and population structure, revealing a dominance level increased but decreased on the diversity and richness of sandflies species in the greatest ecological disturbance area in relation to areas with less organic disturbance. Environments more disturbed cause adaptability of certain species such as Lutzomyia gomezi and Lutzomyia walkeri. These changes on the composition of sandflies population and structure emerging species could cause increasing of leishmaniasis transmission.
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Elsa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nieves
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Luzmary
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oraá
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Yorfer
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rondón
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Mireya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Yetsenia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Masyelly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rojas
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Maritza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rondón
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rujano
authors.affiliation: LAPEX-Laboratorio de Parasitología Experimental, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Nestor
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: LEPAMET-Laboratorio de Entomología, Parasitología y Medicina Tropical, Universidad Nacional Experimental Francisco de Miranda, Falcón 4101, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Dalmiro
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cazorla