A series of 2277 Leishmania strains from Old World visceral leishmaniasis foci, isolated between 1973 and 2008, were studied by isoenzyme analysis. The strains were obtained from humans, domestic and wild carnivores, rodents and phlebotomine sandflies, and came from 36 countries. In all, 60 different zymodemes were identified and clustered by a phenetic analysis into 3 different groups correspo...

ABSTRACT Notifications concerning American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) are increasing in the northern areas of Brazil, particularly due to ongoing increase human settlements inside Amazon Forest. Notwithstanding economical and sanitary importance ATL, ecological aspects its potential vectors, Phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae), remains largely neglected. This study aimed investi...

The phlebotomine sandflies of the province of Chaco, Argentina, are poorly known, with reports from more than 40 years or captures related with outbreaks of leishmaniasis. In here, Mycropygomyia peresi (Mangabeira) is reported for the first time in Argentina, extending the known dstribution of Migonemyia migonei (França), Evandromyia sallesi (Galvão & Coutinho), Mycropygomyia quinquefer (Dyar),...

Phlebotomine sandflies of the genus Sergentomyia are widely distributed throughout the Old World. It has been suggested that Sergentomyia spp are involved in the transmission of Leishmania in India and Africa, whereas Phlebotomus spp are thought to be the sole vectors of Leishmania in the Old World. In this study, Leishmania major DNA was detected in one Sergentomyia minuta specimen that was co...

Genomic and antigenic characterization of Aguacate virus, a tentative species of the genus Phlebovirus, and three other unclassified viruses, Armero virus, Durania virus and Ixcanal virus, demonstrate a close relationship to one another. They are distinct from the other nine recognized species within the genus Phlebovirus. We propose to designate them as a new (tenth) serogroup or species (Agua...

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by different species of the protozoan genus Leishmania that infect animals as well as humans. It is transmitted by the bite of infected female phlebotomine sandflies. There are three forms of leishmaniasis: cutaneus, mucocutaneus and visceral. Leishmania Donovani is the responsible for the visceral form and it causes fever, general discomfort and sple...