Vector-host parasite inter-relation in leishmaniasis-III-impact of blood meal from natural vertebrate hosts on the survival and the development of L. infantum and L. major in phlebotomus langeroni [Diptera: Psychodidae]

ABSTRACT

Phlebotomus langeroni collected from a leishmaniasis endemic focus at El-Agamy, Alexandria, Egypt, were found to fed on blood from man, dogs [Canis familiaris] and rats [Rattus rattus]. The effect of the kind of blood meal on the development and the life cycle of L. infantum and L. major in laboratory reared P. langeroni was investigated. A membrane feeding technique was used to infect sand flies. Gut smears of infected females were examined immediately after feeding and daily for 16 days. Nectomonads and short promastigote forms of L. infantum or L. major were detected in females fed on human, dog and rat blood at all intervals. Paramastigotes [infective stage] were present only in females fed on dog blood containing L. infantum or L. major and in those fed on rat blood containing L. major