Molecular detection and genetic diversity of Leishmania donovani in naturally infected Phlebotomus chinensi from southwestern China.

Zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis is an important vector-borne infectious disease in western China. In this study, an epidemiological study was carried out on the vector of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis in rural areas from Sichuan Province, southwestern China. In the 1263 phlebotomine sandflies captured, 859 (68.01%) were females and 404 (31.99%) males, belonging to Phlebotomus chinensis (83.37%), Sergentomyia koloshanensis (6.57%), Sergentomyia squamirostris (4.04%), and Sergentomyia barraudi (6.02%), respectively. The average prevalence of Leishmania parasites in P. chinensis females was 1.98%, which was detected by real-time quantitative PCR. Phylogenetic analysis based on ITS2-rDNA revealed that Leishmania parasites detected in sandflies belonged to the L. donovani group and formed a novel haplotype. This was the first report on molecular detection of L. donovani in naturally infected P. chinensi from China.