molecular detection of leishmania infantum in naturally infected phlebotomus perfiliewi transcaucasicus in bilesavar district, northwestern iran

background: visceral leishmaniasis is caused by leishmania infantum , transmitted to humans by bites of phle­botomine sand flies and is one of the most important public health problems in iran. to identify the vector(s), an investiga­tion was carried out in bilesavar district, one of the important foci of the disease in ardebil province in northwest­ern iran, during july - september 2008 . methods: using sticky papers, 2,110 sand flies were collected from indoors (bedroom, guestroom, toilet and stable) and outdoors (wall cracks, crevices and animal burrows) and identified morphologically. species-specific amplifica­tion of promastigotes revealed specific pcr products of l. infantum dna. results: six sand fly species were found in the district, including: phlebotomus perfiliewi transcaucasicus , p. pa­patasi , p. tobbi, p. sergenti, sergentomyia dentata and s. sintoni . phlebotomus perfiliewi transcaucasicus was the domi­nant species of the genus phlebotomus (62.8 %). of 270 female dissected p. perfiliewi transcuacasicus , 4 (1.5%) were found naturally infected with promastigotes. conclusion: based on natural infections of p. perfiliewi transcaucasicus with l. infantum and the fact that it was the only species found infected with l. infantum , it seems, this sand fly could be the principal vector of visceral leishmani­asis in the region.