Field Estimation of Degree –Day Development Requirements and Species Composition of Phlebotomine Sand Flies in a New Focus of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Eastern Azerbaijan Province, North-Western of Iran

Introduction: Sand flies belong to Psychodidae family. Phlebotomus genus includes all vectors of Old World Leishmaniasis. Of different forms, cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasisoccur in Iran. Control programs implementation is impossible with lack of sufficient information about area fauna and ecological parameters such as efficient temperature or degree-day. Materials and Methods: Sand flies were collected using sticky traps biweekly from selected indoor and outdoor villages. Species identification was carried out by using sand fly keys. To measure the degree-day, averaging method was considered and the obtained data from Ph. papatasi growth in laboratory conditions were applied. According to averaging method, the degree-day was calculated by daily average temperature minus minimum threshold temperature.Results: 16 species were identified from the collected sandflies of which 14 were phlebotomus and two sergentomyia. The species identified as phlebotomus include: Ph. ansari, Ph. mongolensis, Ph. sergenti, Ph. papatasi, Ph. longiductus, Ph. halepensis, Ph. kandelakii, Ph. tobbi, Ph. mesghali, Ph. caucasicus, Ph. anderjevi, Ph. adlerius, Ph. major, and Ph. perfiliewi. The sergentomyia species were: S. pawlowski and S. hodgsoni. Ph. papatasi was dominant and from Larsious group, Ph. kandelakii and Ph. tobbi were more frequent. All 16 species were reported for the first time in Azarshahr and both S. hodgsoni and S. mesghali for the first time in East Azerbaijan. The accumulated degree-day, calculated from late December until late May, was 289 degree-day which was in field with the degree-day requirement for laboratory development of Ph. papatasi. Discussion: For the first time species composition of sand flies was characterized in Azarshahr and considering the establishment of disease sources and human cases in the area, the likelihood of visceral leishmaniasis vectors was proven. The calculated day-degree (289) was in field with the degree- day requirements for laboratory development of Ph. papatasi and was created from late May until early October suggesting one generation of sand flies in the area.

کلیدواژه ها:

Sand Flies ، Degree - Day ، Visceral leishmaniasis ، Species Composition ، Iran