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- Title
Nocturnal activities and host preferences of Phlebotomus orientalis in extra-domestic habitats of Kafta-Humera lowlands, Kala-azar endemic, Northwest Ethiopia.
- Authors
Lemma, Wossenseged; Tekie, Habte; Abassi, Ibrahim; Balkew, Meshesha; Gebre-Michael, Teshome; Warburg, Alon; Hailu, Asrat
- Abstract
Background Phlebotomus orientalis feeds on a variety of wild and domestic animals and transmits Leishmania donovani from hitherto unknown reservoir hosts to humans in extra-domestic habitats in the Metema - Humera lowlands. The aim of this study was to determine the nocturnal activities of P. orientalis and its preferred blood meal hosts. Methods Collections of Phlebotomus orientalis were made by using CDC light traps to determine the density as P. orientalis/hour CDC trap and preference to rodents by using Turner’s traps in agricultural fields, animal shelters and thickets of Acacia seyal in Baeker site-1 and Gelanzeraf site-2. The blood meal sources were detected by Reverse Line Blot (RLB) of cytochrome b polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification in August, 2012 from collections of sand flies in thickets of A. seyal (March 2011) and dense mixed forest (July 2011) in Baeker site 1. RLB PCR involved first amplification of animal specific sequences of cytochrome b using PCR techniques. Then the amplified sequence was hybridized with 11 species-specific probes for domestic animals adsorbed on nitrocellulose membrane for calorimetric color detection. Results A total of 6,083 P. orientalis (2,702 males and 3,381 females) were collected at hourly intervals using 22 CDC traps from January to May 2013. The peak activities of P. orientalis were at 1.00 a.m (134.0 ± 7.21) near animal shelters, 3.00 a.m (66.33 ± 46.40) in agricultural fields and 21:00 pm (40.6 ± 30.06) in thickets of A. seyal. This species was not attracted to the different species of rodents in trials carried out in March and April 2013. RLB PCR identified 7 human (28%), 9 mixed (human and cattle) (36%) and 2 cattle (8%) blood meals while 7 were unknown (28%). Conclusion Female P. orientalis can bite humans in extra-domestic habitats of Kafta-Humera lowlands at any hour of the night with peak biting after midnight.
- Subjects
ETHIOPIA; LEISHMANIA donovani; PHLEBOTOMUS papatasi; DOMESTIC animal diseases; DOMESTIC animal genetics; DOMESTIC animal reproduction; POLYMERASE chain reaction
- Publication
Parasites & Vectors, 2014, Vol 7, Issue 1, p849
- ISSN
1756-3305
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s13071-014-0594-3