Between April 2003 and May 2009 phlebotomine sandflies were collected in Parque do Sabiá complex, Uberlândia municipality, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, using CDC and Shannon traps. The objective was to associate the sandfly species captured to the risk of the transmission of leishmaniasis in the municipality. The 126 captured specimens belonging to six species of phlebotomine, among which Lutzom...

Recent techniques of geometric morphometrics were applied to the study of four Thailand laboratory lines of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti. These lines differed by their geographic origin and the number of generations spent in the laboratory. Using a phase contrast microscope, a set of sixteen landmarks of the wings could be identified. A subsequent Procrustean superposition analysis produced ...

A serological survey among domestic and stray dogs of the municipality of S o Jos do Rio Preto, Brazil, was conducted to identify infected animals and detect the chances of transmitting the American visceral leishmaniasis. From November 1998 to June 2000, 2,104 sera samples were tested by indirect immunofluorescence reaction, using as antigen promastigotes of Leishmania (L.) chagasi. There wer...

Sixteen insect-infested cadavers were examined and analysed to evaluate the reliability of the entomological method in estimation of time elapsed since death, in relation to other medico-legal approaches. The entomological method was found statistically more reliable and superior when compared to other prevalent methods.

The gonotrophic cycle, survivorship, and daily parity rate of Simulium ochraceum were estimated from specimens collected during routine vector surveillance in southern Mexico, using a vertical (time-specific) method. Series of sequential data analysis on parity of the entomological data obtained in February 1994 showed the highest significant (P < 0.05 alpha) correlation indices (r = 0.63 and r...

Concerted action is needed to address public health issues raised by climate change. In this Review we discuss infections acquired through various routes (arthropod vector, rodent, water, food, and air) in view of a changing climate in Europe. Based on an extensive review of published work and expert workshops, we present an assessment of the infectious disease challenges: incidence, prevalence...

OBJECTIVE To study the antibody prevalence against dengue in the municipality of Jundiaí, São Paulo, Brazil, due to the low number of official confirmed autochthonous cases. METHODS A serological study on dengue infection was conducted during January 2010 and previous reports on dengue and entomological surveillance during that period were reviewed. RESULTS A prevalence of 7.8% IgG positive...

We estimated the geographic distributions of triatomine species in Central-West Region of Brazil (CW) and analysed the climatic factors influencing their occurrence. A total of 3,396 records of 27 triatomine species were analysed. Using the maximum entropy method, ecological niche models were produced for eight species occurring in at least 20 municipalities based on 13 climatic variables and e...

This work is characterized by an entomological research and an investigation on whether seasonal behaviours can be associated to the phlebotomine fauna found in the urban area of Timóteo-MG - an endemic focus of tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL). The analysis of the seasonal behaviour of sand flies has taken into account the following climatic variables: rainfall, relative humidity and temperature...

INTRODUCTION The aim of the present study was to assess the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a method for detecting Trypanosoma cruzi infection in triatomines that had been previously determined by microscopic examination in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. METHODS In total, 515 specimens were collected. Material from the digestive tract of each triatomine was analyzed for the prese...