Establishment of a mass screening method of sand fly vectors for Leishmania infection by molecular biological methods

Surveillance of the prevalence of Leishmania and its vector, sand fly species, in endemic and surrounding areas is important for prediction of the risk and expansion of leishmaniasis. In this study, a method for the mass screening of sand flies for Leishmania infection was established. This method was applied to 319 field-captured specimens, and 5 positive sand flies were detected. Sand fly species were identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the18S rRNA gene, and all the positive flies were Lu. hartmanni. Furthermore, cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene sequence analyses identified all the parasites as Endotrypanum species including a probable novel species. Because the method requires minimum effort and can process a large number of samples at once, it will be a powerful tool for studying the epidemiology of leishmaniasis.