Phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae; phlebotominae) of Ocholo; South Western Ethiopia: Species composition and natural infection with leishmania aethiopica

ABSTRACT

A study carried out in December 1980 and March-April 1989 indicated the presence of five species of phlebotomine sandflies in Ocholo; southwestern Ethiopia Phlebotomus aculeatus; P. pedifer; Srgentomyia affinis vorax; S. africana magna; and S. bedford. P. aculeatus; S. affinis vorax and S. africana hagna were rare. P. pedifer was caught with aspiraor; CDC light trap and on human balt P. pedifer was found to highly anthropophilic. The survey of March-April 1989 showed a population of P. pedifer with 32.9parous or gravid females. Of the 118 parous or gravid females of P. pedifer dissected; 5 were found infected with promastigotes characterized as Leishmania aethiopica; and one additional female was classified positive by a species-specific DNA probe. The overall infection rate was 5.1. Four of the five infected flies were full of promastigotes in the cardia; thoracic- and abdominal-midgut regions. This suggested that the gut of P. pedifer allowed the development of L. aethiopica promastigotes and their migration anteriorly; a feature considered important in sandfly vectors of mammalian leishmaniasis