Efficacy of light and nonlighted carbon dioxide-baited traps for adult sand fly (Diptera: Psychodidae) surveillance in three counties of Mesrata, Libya.

ABSTRACT. Sand flies are important vectors of cutaneous leishmaniasis, especially along coastal towns of northwestern Libya where an estimated 20,000 cases have occurred from 2004 to 2009. Host-seeking traps are an important tool for sampling sand fly populations and surveying the incidence of Leishmania major and L. tropica within a given population. We evaluated the capture efficiency of CO2-baited BG-Sentinel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light, CDC ultraviolet light, and nonbaited CO2 CDC light traps in 3 coastal townships during June, August, September, and November 2010. A total of 3,248 sand flies, representing 8 species from 2 genera, were collected; most sand flies were identified as either Phlebotomus papatasi or P. longicuspis. Three of the traps captured significantly more sand flies compared to the BG-Sentinel baited with CO2 (P < 0.001). Three of 456 DNA pools extracted from sand flies were positive for Leishmania DNA, indicating a minimum estimated infection rate of 0.83% and 0.47% for P. papatasi and P. longicuspis, respectively.