Identification of Leishmania Parasites and Sandflies Fauna in Zirkouh City, Khorasan-e-Jonoobi Province

Leishmaniasis is one of the most important vector-borne zoonosis that transmits to human by sand fly species. The current study was carried out to identify sand fly species in Zirkooh, Khorasan-e-Jonobi Province. It was also aimed to determine Leishmania species in infected sand flies by RFLP-PCR method.
Sand fly specimens were collected by using sticky traps and mechanical aspirator from different parts of Zirkooh city during summer 2015. Captured females were first mounted and then were identified at species level. DNA of the parasite was isolated using extraction kit. The gene ITS-1 was amplified using the parasite specific primers and then RFLP-PCR method was used to identify them.
In this study, a total of 460 specimens were collected, of which 380 sand flies collected from animal facilities and 80 sand flies from residential areas. The most prevalent species, out of 110 females in total, was Phlebotomus sergenti (59.42%) and the second most prevalent was Sergentomyia sintoni (7.25%). Among the examined sandflies, only one specimen belonged to Phlebotomu sergenti was infected with Leishmania tropica; identified by RFLP-PCR.
Considering the presence of Ph. sergenti, as the dominant species in the region, which is component of disease vectors of the urban type of cutaneous leishmaniasis and the presence of Leishmania tropica in the region, the city's health system must take a necessary action for controlling cutaneous leishmaniasis.