A Survey of Sandflies in Fushin Township, Taoyuan County, Taiwan and a PCR Diagnostic Method of Sandfly Infection

Hwa-Jen Teng

2008 Vol.24 NO.7

Correspondence Author： Hwa-Jen Teng

Abstract：

Leishmaniasis is caused by the protozoan parasites of Leishmania spp., which are transmitted by the bites of female sand flies. In addition, these small flies can also transmit other diseases such as bartonellosis and sandfly fever. A one-time survey was conducted in a house of a 2006 patient and its surroundings at the Fushin Township, Taoyuan County, Taiwan to understand the species of the sand flies and the possible infections of Leishmania spp. In a total of 3 teams, each team used two kinds of light traps, castor oil sticky traps, emergence traps, backpack aspirators, and human mouth aspirators. A total of 102 sand flies (62♀40♂) were collected and identified as Sergentomyia iyengari taiwanensis. CDC light traps (39♀31♂) captured the highest number of sand flies and followed by blacklight traps (16♀5♂), human mouth aspirators (7♀2♂) and caster oil sticky traps (1♂). Forty-seven female sand flies were subject to detect Leishmania infection by fluorogenic real-time PCR and all showed negative results. The sensitivity of this test was 3.42 Leishmania donovani for one single sand fly.
Keywords:Leishmania, sandfly, real-time PCR, Collection methods, Taoyuan County.