Isolation and Identification of Leishmania Species From Sandflies and Rodents Collected From Roffaye District, Khuzestan Province, Southwest of Iran.

Abstract

Background: Leishmaniais which is one of the six most important tropical diseases in the world are in Iran in 3 forms. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in Iran, however, Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ZCL) is endemic in Khuzestan province. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the species of Leishmania in vector and reservoir hosts of cutaneous leishmaniasis based on molecular methods in Roffaye District, Khuzestan, Iran. Materials and Methods: In this study sand flies were collected from indoors and outdoors using sticky traps and rodents using Sherman live traps. They were both subjected to the nested PCR method to detect Leishmania parasite. Results: Phlebotomus papatasi was the most common species of sandflies in outdoor and indoor resting places and Tatera indica (Indian gerbil) was the most common species among rodents. PCR technique showed that only 2 out of the 27 P. papatasi (7.4%) and1 of the Tatera indica out of 12 rodents (8.3%) were positive for parasite due Leishmania major. The trapped Alactaga sp. were not infected by L. major. Conclusions: This is the first molecular report on parasite infection of both vector (P. papatas) and reservoir (T. indica) to L. major from this area. Therefore, the population of both sandflies and rodents should be reduced using control methods.