Experimental efficiency of Phlebotomus papatasi in maintaining development of four species of Leishmania.

Experimental infections were carried out to evaluate the capability of 3 species of Phlebotomus to acquire and allow development of 4 species of Leishmania. The sand-flies were allowed to feed on infective blood by a membrane feeding technique and infected vertebrate hosts. The species of Phlebotomus experimented with were P. papatasi (Egyptian and Indian strains), P. dubosqi (Sinegal strain), and P. perniciosus (French strain). The species of Leishmania used were L. tropica (Afganistanian strain) in blood and L. major (Egyptian strain) in blood, in volunteer patient and in hamster, L. major (Morocco strain) in Meriones shawi, L. infantum (French strain) in dog and L. enrietti (Brazilian strain) in Guinea-pig. The results showed that Egyptian P. papatasi was the most suitable species for Egyptian L. major in blood followed by P. dubosqui. On the other hand, P. dubosqui was the most suitable species for L. tropica in blood followed by Indian P. papatasi. On the other hand, Egyptian P. papatasi acquired L. major from hamster (38.2%) and L. enrietti from Guinea pig (1.9%), but not L. major from the patient. Indian P. papatasi acquired L. major from Meriones (5.6%), L. infantum from dog (1.09%) but not L. enrietti from Guinea pig. Generally speaking, L. major was more engalfed by P. papatasi (2 strains) from the artificial source (blood) than from the vertebrate hosts.