Diversity and Activity Pattern of Sand Flies in Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Endemic Tribal District Khyber, Pakistan
Diversity and Activity Pattern of Sand Flies in Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Endemic Tribal District Khyber, Pakistan
Muhammad Zahir Shah1,2 and Syed Basit Rasheed1,*
ABSTRACT
Leishmaniasis is endemic for last more than one decade in the tribal district Khyber located in the north-west of Pakistan near Pak-Afghan border. The disease burden has increased during the time of war against terrorism in the tribal belt of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. This study was designed to investigate various ecological and entomological aspects of sand flies in war effected district Khyber. Sand flies were collected from seven different localities of the district by flit method, CDC light traps and mouth aspirator. A total of 28 species belonging to two genera i.e., Phlebotomus represented by 12 species and Sergentomyia represented by 16 species were collected during the present study. Phlebotomus mongolensis is reported for the first time from Pakistan. Phlebotomus sergenti (48.77%) was the most abundant species followed by Phlebotomus paptasi (17.89%), Sergentomyia baghdadis (14.53%) and Sergentomyia babu (7.22%). Shannon-Weiner Index was high due to maximum number of specimens belonging to Phlebotomus sergenti. The overall female to male sex ratio was observed to be 1:1.9. Sand fly activity was observed from April to December with population density reaching its peak in the month of August. A positive correlation was observed between sand fly abundance and climatic variables, which was significant with temperature only. The high abundance of Phlebotomus sergenti support the endemicity of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in the study area. Presence of species of subgenera Adlerius and Larusius suggest the possibility sporadic visceral leishmaniasis in the region.
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