title: Host choice of Phlebotomus orientalis (Diptera: Psychodidae) in animal baited experiments: a field study in Tahtay Adiyabo district, northern Ethiopia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Host choice and feeding success of sand fly vectors of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) are important factors in understanding the epidemiology and for developing efficient control strategies. The aim of the present study was to determine the host preference of Phlebotomus orientalis in the VL focus of Tahtay Adiyabo district, northern Ethiopia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two separate experiments were conducted testing attraction of P. orientalis to humans, domestic animals, and small wild animals. The host choice of P. orientalis and other sand fly species was assessed using tent traps baited with seven different animals (human, cow, sheep, goat, donkey, dog and chicken) and a blank control. Baited traps were rotated every night in a Latin square design for two consecutive full rounds totaling 16 trap-nights. The second set of experiments tested attraction to small wild animals including; ground squirrel (Xerus rutilus), hare (Lepus sp.), gerbil (Tatera robusta) and spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus). Animals were caged in standard rodent traps or cylindrical wire-mesh cages. The bait animals were placed in agricultural field and the attracted sand flies were collected using unlit CDC traps for 10 trapping nights. Sand fly specimens collected from each of the experiments were identified to species level and counted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed in the attraction and feeding rate of P. orientalis to different baits. In the first experiment, cow-baited tent traps attracted the highest mean number of P. orientalis (mean = 510 flies). The engorgement rate of P. orientalis on donkey was the highest followed by cow, and much lower on goat, sheep, dog and chicken. In the case of smaller wild animals, more numbers of P. orientalis females were attracted to squirrels followed by hares, gerbils and the spiny rat. However, the engorgement rates for P. orientalis in the smaller animals were very low (1.08%) compared with larger domestic animals (30.53%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The tendency of female P. orientalis to engorge in large numbers on certain species of domestic as well as wild animals strongly indicated that the species is primarily zoophilic in its host preference with feeding habits that may vary depending on the availability of hosts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoological Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. shambe2006@yahoo.com.|Department of Biology, College of Natural Science, Jigjiga University, Jigjiga, Ethiopia. shambe2006@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Araya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gebresilassie
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, College of Natural Science, Jigjiga University, Jigjiga, Ethiopia. solyar2005@yahoo.com.|Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. solyar2005@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Solomon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yared
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoological Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. reyeesayas@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Essayas
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aklilu
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, The Institute of Medical Research Israel-Canada The Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. oscark@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Oscar David
authors.initials: OD
authors.lastname: Kirstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, The Institute of Medical Research Israel-Canada The Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. adi.moncaz@mail.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Aviad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moncaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoological Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. habte_tm@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Habte
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tekie
authors.affiliation: Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. meshesha_b@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Meshesha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Balkew
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, The Institute of Medical Research Israel-Canada The Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. alonw@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Alon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Warburg
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. hailu_a2004@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Asrat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hailu
authors.affiliation: Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. teshomegm@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Teshome
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gebre-Michael
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005002:Ethiopia; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D058507:Host Specificity; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D010691:Phlebotomus / Q000502:physiology*