Epidemiological role of Phlebotomus papatasi and P. sergenti populations in Morocco: What we know and what can we learn from the field?
2013
Ouanaimi, Fouad | Boussaa, Samia | Kahime, Kholoud | Boumezzough, Ali
In Morocco the distribution of P. papatasi and P. sergenti largely exceeds the Leishmaniasis foci. This situation, which also occurs in other regions of the world, highlights that various factors, acting at different levels of the Leishmania life cycle, can influence the transmission of Leishmania in endemic areas. Among which, those linked to sand flies are poorly studied. However, to analyse the Leishmaniasis risk associated with displacement and/or colonization of sand flies, it is important to gather information on potential factors that can impact the vectorial competence in natural populations of sand flies. Leishmania resides continuously in the lumen of the sand fly gut where all its intravectorial development takes place. Therefore, the analysis of biological interactions in the natural environment of sand flies, which can interfere with the intravectorial development of Leishmania, might shed light on the understanding of underlying factors playing roles in the transmission of Leishmania in endemic areas. The areas where sand flies distribution does not correlate with the disease distribution might represent interesting areas, where underlying factors that influence the vectorial competence/capacity of sandfly populations can be studied in natural conditions. In this brief comment, taking into account the example of Moroccan populations of P. papatasi and P. sergenti, we discuss potential biological interactions of L. major or L. tropica with their respective vector during the intravectorial developmental life cycle and the potential consequence of parasite transmission in natural conditions.
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