Abstract
Zoontic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL) due to Leishmania infantum is a potentially fatal protozoan parasitic disease of humans and dogs. In the Americas, dogs are the reservoir and the sand fly, Lutzomyia longipalpis, the principal vector. A synthetic version of the male sand fly produced sex-aggregation pheromone attracts both female and male conspecifics to co-located insecticide, reducing both reservoir infection and vector abundance. However the effect of the synthetic pheromone on the vector’s “choice“ of host (human, animal reservoir, or dead-end host) for blood feeding in the presence of the pheromone is less well understood. In this study, we developed a modelling framework to allow us to predict the relative attractiveness of the synthetic pheromone and potential alterations in host choice. Our analysis indicates that the synthetic pheromone can attract 53% (95% CIs: 39%–86%) of host-seeking female Lu. longipalpis and thus it out-competes competing host odours. Importantly, the results suggest that the synthetic pheromone can lure vectors away from humans and dogs, such that when co-located with insecticide, it provides protection against transmission leading to human and canine ZVL.
Highlights
Understanding the blood-seeking behaviour of arthropod vectors has relevance to vector control against transmission of public and veterinary health diseases [1,2]
To address the question of the contribution of different attractive elements to the overall attractiveness of a household, we developed a mechanistic spatial model for sand fly host choice in response to a synthetic conspecific sex-aggregation pheromone, whereby the local distribution of sand flies was constructed in terms of attraction profiles
We modelled the localised influence of the synthetic pheromone in treated households the localised influence of the conspecifics synthetic pheromone in 30 treated housebasedWe on modelled empirical data showing that it can attract from at least m away
Summary
Understanding the blood-seeking behaviour of arthropod vectors has relevance to vector control against transmission of public and veterinary health diseases [1,2]. Insect pheromones that mediate mating, aggregation, and invitation behaviours [5], could play a role in maintaining vector contact with insecticides, and in reducing the human biting index. Insect pheromones and other semiochemicals have been widely exploited to monitor and reduce pest populations to protect crop yields [5,6,7]. Pheromones produced by vectors of public or veterinary health importance have not been widely identified or characterised [8] despite their potential to be used to help reduce infection or disease incidence.
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