Journal of Arthropod-Borne Diseases
Volume:7 Issue: 2, Dec 2013

Malaria is still a public health problem in the world. One of the main objectives of World Health or­ganization is capacity building of authorities who are involved with malaria control activities. The first course was conducted in 1996 in Bandar Abbas Training center. The course was conducted jointly by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran, WHO-EMRO and School of Public health, Tehran university of Medical Sciences. In year 2002, Iran has been designated as WHO regional Malaria Training Center. Prior to initiate the course, pre-test evaluations including 11 subjects were carried out. The examinations include multiple choice questions. Different methods of teaching including lecture, laboratory, workshop, team work, field exercise and presentation were used. The duration of the course was 9 weeks. A total of 360 contact hours were taught. The main subjects were Basic epidemiology and Simple Statistics, Malaria Parasitology, Malaria disease Management, Malaria Entomology, Vector Control, Epidemiological approach, Filed work and Planning.The requirement for achievement of the course was to have at least 60% of the total mark for awarding the diploma certificate. The 13th course was conducted by the financial support of Islamic Development Bank (IDB). A total of 300 participants from 26 different countries have been graduated from these courses so far. This course is providing the skill for decision making, how to combat against malaria in their country and is parallel to the policy of the malaria control for capacity building in malarious areas of the world.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) represents the most frequent vector borne parasitoses in Iran. The ob­jective of this study was to determine the epidemiological features of CL including human infection and the reservoir host in the city of Bushehr, Bushehr Province, Iran during 2010–2011. Studies on human infection was carried out on 2962 school children aged 7–14 years old from 60 primary schools and among 400 households with a total population of 1568 in four infected districts of the city in December 2010. Serosity materials from patients on glass slides were collected for molecular identification of causative agent. Rodents were caught by Sherman traps and examined for identification of the parasite. Prevalence of scars and ulcers among the inhabitants were 5.86% and 0.12% respectively. Molecular study indicated the presence of two coexisting species: Leishmania major and L. tropica among patients. The scar rate was 1.24% but no ulcers were seen among the students. Nineteen rodents were caught and identified as Tatera indica (47.4%) and Rattus norvegicus (52.6%). Specimens from 7 T. indica and 9 R. norvegicus were examined by two techniques, microscopic examination and nested-PCR. Out of 7 T. indica, 14.3% were infected with L. major and 42.9% with L. turanica by nested-PCR. Out of 9 R. norvegicus 22.2% were infected with L. turanica and 11.1% with L. gerbilli. Based on this survey L. major and L. tropica are the causative agents of the disease among patients and T. indica plays a predominant role in the dissemination of L. major in the city.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania major is a serious and increasing problem affecting many rural areas of 17 out of 31 provinces in Iran. Little is known about sand fly fauna and leishmaniases in Eastern Iran and no study has been carried out in Sarbisheh County. The aim of this study was to determine sand flies composi­tion and probable Leishmania infection to find the probable vectors of leishmaniasis in Sarbisheh district. Sand flies were caught using both sticky papers and CDC light traps in August 2010. They were identified morphologically and analyzed for Leishmania infection by amplification of ITS-rDNA. Totally, 842 specimens were caught and 8 species recorded. They belonged to the genera Phlebotomus and Sergentomyia: P. (Phlebotomus) papatasi, P. (Paraphlebotomus) sergenti, P. (Pa.) caucasicus, P. (Pa.) mongolensis, P. (Pa.) jacusieli, S. (Sergentomyia) dentata, S. (Se.) sintoni and S. (Sintonius) clydei. All collected females were processed for Leishmania DNA detection by PCR amplifying of Internal Transcribed Spacer1 (partial sequence), 5.8S (complete sequence) and ITS2 (partial sequence) fragments. Thirteen females were positive for Leishmania DNA. The sequencing of the 430 bp amplicons indicated that 9 P. papatasi and 3 females belonging to the Caucasicus group carried L. major DNA whereas one P. sergenti carried L. tropica DNA. Phlebotomus papatasi and P. sergenti are, like in several places, the probable vectors of cutaneous leishmaniases in this emerging or unknown focus of cutaneous leishmaniases.

Babesiosis is a haemoparasitic disease of domestic and wild animals caused by species of the genus Babesia. Babesia bigemina, B. bovis and B. divergens are known to be pathogenic in cattle. The disease is transmit­ted during blood feeding by infected ticks and is the most economically important tick-borne disease in tropical and subtropical areas. Ixodid ticks are vectors in the transmission of babesiosis. The classic presentation is a febrile syn­drome with apparent anemia and hemoglobinuria. This study was carried out to determine species of bovine Babesia spp. vector ticks collected from naturally occurring bovine babesiosis in West and North-West of Iran. Two hundred and eleven ticks were collected from 113 cattle and ticks'' species were identified using the standard taxonomic keys. After DNA extraction from salivary glands of each tick, the presence of Babesia spp. in­fection in ticks was examined by PCR method using primers derived from the gene encoding rhoptry protein. Rhipicephalus sanguineus and R. bursa ticks were infected with bovine Babesia spp. Rhipicephalus spp. may play a major role in the transmission of infection of bovine Babesia spp. in West and North-West of Iran.

Scorpions stings are a health problem in many parts of the world. Mesobuthus eupeus (Buthidae) is the most prevalent species in the Middle East and Central Asia. Definition of toxicogenic and immunogenic characteris­tics of the venom is necessary to produce antidote. In this study, the noted properties of M. eupeus venom were eval­uated. Venom was obtained by milking M. eupeus scorpions for lyophilization. Toxicity was determined after injecting the venom to albino mice and calculating LD50. Polyclonal antibodies against M. eupeus venom were ob­tained from immunized rabbits. The CH-Sepharose 4B column was used for isolating the specific antibodies. 10 mg of the affinity-purified antibodies were conjugated with a CH-Sepharose 4B column and M. eupeus venom was ap­plied to the column. The bound fragments were eluted using hydrogen chloride (pH: 2.5). Crude venom and affinity-purified fractions of the venom were analyzed by SDS-PAGE technique. Lethal dose (LD) was 8.75, 11.5 and 4.5 mg/kg for IP, SC and IV respectively. The LD50 of M. eupeus venom was 6.95 mg/kg. The crude venom had 12 detectable bands with molecular weights of 140, 70, 50, 33, 30, 27, 22, 18, 14, 10 kDa and two bands less than 5 kDa. The affinity-purified venom presented eight bands. The 27 kDa band was clearly sharper than other bands but 70, 18, 10 and one of the less than 5 kDa bands were not observed. Contrary to popular belief, which know scorpion venom as non-immunogenic composition, the current study was shown that the most fractions of the M. eupeus are immunogenic.

A field study on diversity and distribution of anophelines currently present in a past endemic malaria area of Spain was carried out in order to identify possible risk areas of local disease transmission. Multiple larval sites were sampled from June to October of 2011 in the Region of Somontano de Barbastro (Northeastern Spain). The sampling effort was fixed at 10 minutes which included the active search for larvae in each biotope visited. A total of 237 larval specimens belonging to four Anopheles species (Anopheles atroparvus, An. claviger, An. maculipennis and An. petragnani) were collected and identified. Malaria receptivity in the study area is high, especially in the area of Cinca river valley, due to the abundance of breeding sites of An. atroparvus very close to human settlements. Although current socio-economic conditions in Spain reduce possibilities of re-emergence of malaria transmission, it is evident that certain entomo­logical and epidemiological vigilance must be maintained and even increased in the context of current processes of climate change and globalization.

Anopheles culicifacies, a major malarial vector has been recognized as a complex of five sibling spe­cies, A, B, C, D and E. These sibling species exhibit varied vectorial capacity, host specificity and susceptibility to malarial parasites/ insecticides. In this study, a PCR assay developed earlier for distinguishing the five individual species was validated on samples of An. culicifacies collected from various parts of India. The samples were initially screened using the rDNA-ITS2 region based primers which categorised the samples into either A/D group or B/C/E group. A proportion of samples belonging to each group were subjected to the mtDNA-COII PCR assay for identifying individual species. Among the 615 samples analysed by rDNA-ITS2 PCR assay, 303 were found to belong to A/D group and 299 to B/C/E group while 13 turned negative. Among 163 samples belonging to A/D group, only one sample dis­played the profile characteristic of species A and among the 176 samples falling in the B/C/E group, 51 were identi­fied as species B, 14 as species C and 41 as species E respectively by the mtDNA-COII PCR assay. Samples exhib­iting products diagnostic of B/C/E, when subjected to PCR-RFLP assay identified 15 samples as species E. Validation of the mtDNA-COII PCR assay on large number of samples showed that this technique can­not be used universally to distinguish the 5 members of this species complex, as it has been designed based on mi­nor/single base differences observed in the COII region.

Diagnostic study of vector ticks for different pathogens transmitted specifically have been done by Iranian old scientists working on the basis of biological transmission of pathogens. In this study we decided to con­firm natural infection of different collected ticks from three different provinces of Iran. Ticks were collected from livestock (sheep, goats and cattle) during favorable seasons (April to September 2007 and 2008). Slide preparations were stained by Giemsa and Feulgen and were studied searching for any trace of infection. Positive DNA from infected blood or tissue samples was provided and was used as positive control. First, PCR optimization for positive DNA was done, and then tick samples were subjected to specific PCR. Eleven pairs of primers were designed for detection of Theileria, Babesia and Anaplasma spp. Totally 21 tick samples were detected to be infected with protozoa. Hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum and Rhipicephalus turanicus from Fars Province were infected with T. lestoquardi at two different places. Hyalomma detritum was in­fected with T. lestoquardi in Lorestan Province and Rh. turanicus was infected to Ba. ovis from Fars Province. Totally 21 tick samples were detected to be infected with protozoa. Every sample is regarded with host-environment related factors. Since there are complex relations of vectors and their relevant protozoa, different proce­dures are presented for future studies.

Great gerbils, Rhombomys opimus, are the main reservoir host of zoonootic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) in Iran and neighboring countries. Based on morphological traits two subspecies R. opimus sodalis and R. opimus sargadensis have reported in the country. However, variation in infection rate and signs to Leishmania parasites, phenotype, size, and sexual polymorphisms demand more details to elucidate clearly the role of great gerbils in ZCL epidemiology. PCR-RFLP and PCR-direct sequencing were used to analyze mitochondrial DNA cytochrome B (mtDNA-cytB) gene structure of R. opimus collected from Golestan and Khorasan-e-Razavi Provinces in 2011 that are neighbor to Turkmenistan Country where ZCL is endemic in both sides of the borderline. All of the specimens (n= 61) were morphologically or genetically similar to the typical R. opimus sodalis. However, there were 9 (1.5%) DNA substitutions throughout the 583 bp of the Cyt b gene of the samples sequenced comprising six DNA haplotypes. Maximum likelihood or neighbor joining phylogenetic trees inferred from the sequences could resolve the populations according to their subspecies as well as geographical origins. The DNA polymorphisms in the great gerbils may correspond to the signs and infection rate in the animal. However, further studies are needed to match these six haplotypes with different signs and parasite sustaining following infection with L. major in the great gerbils.

There are several important mosquito borne infectious disease in the tropical countries. Chikungunya virus infection is an important arbovirus in this group. We hereby used a standard medicogeographical analysis to assess the correlation between prevalence of Chikungunya virus infection and rainfall in the endemic area of Thailand, the Southern region. In this work, the cor­relation was poor but significant. The result is concordant with a similar report from the retro­spective analysis from the local center of disease control. Several other factors can affect the pattern of Chikungunya virus infection in the studied endemic area.

Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis is a growing health problem in many rural areas of Iran. Rhombo­mys opimus, the great gerbil, is the main animal reservoir of ZCL in the northeast and central part of Iran. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the rodenticidal effect of Coumavec® (a mixture of Coumatetralyl 0.5% and Etofenprox 0.5%) on R. opimus under laboratory condition. Great gerbils were collected from Sejzi rural district, Esfahan Province, Iran. Four groups of 19 great ger­bils were treated with the poisoned baits of different concentrations and one group was considered as control. The bating procedure was conducted in three stages: first, second (a week after first) and third (a month after first stage), in each stage baits were offered in 1 day, based on national protocol for rodent control operation in purpose of ZCL control. The mortality rate for 0.03, 0.0625, 0.125 and 0.25% concentrations in the first stage of baiting were ob­tained 36.8%, 31.5%, 52.6% and 36.8%, in the second stage 47.3%, 52.6%, 68.4% and 52.6%, and in the third stage 52.6%, 63.1%, 68.4% and 57.8% respectively. The maximum and minimum mortality has occurred in 5-6 days and 31-40 days intervals consequently. The results of this study showed that, Coumavec® has some rodenticidal effects on R. opimus in labo­ratory condition. For the appropriate rodenticide-insecticide contamination of the rodent body and also considering to the economic issues, we suggest the use of 0.125% concentration for rodent control operation in the field condition.

Wound or traumatic Myiasis is the infestation of animal and human orifices or wounds by dipterous larvae. It is more common in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Chrysomya bezziana is a major agent of wound myiasis throughout the tropical regions of the Old World. In Iran many cases of human myiasis due to C. bezziana were reported from south and south-east of country.This study reports a case of wound myiasis in a 3-year-old pharyngostomized girl who referred to the Pediatric Hospital in Bandar Abbas for pharyngological follow-up. During the examination, several live and mobile larvae were removed from the lesion. The patient received antibiotics and then transferred to pediatric ward for respiratory care. The specimens were identified as C. bezziana according to the morphological characters of fully grown larvae.This is the first report of the pharyngostomy wound myiasis caused by C. bezziana in Iran.This finding also confirms the results of previous studies indicating the occurrence of the Old World screwworm fly, C. bezziana as a causative agent of human myiasis in the south of Iran.