Micro and meso scale environmental determinants of Lutzomyia longipalpis and Nyssomyia whitmani abundance, main vectors of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis in Puerto Iguazú, Argentina

MARÍA GABRIELA QUINTANA; MARÍA SOLEDAD SANTINI; REGINO CAVIA; MARIELA MARTINEZ; MARÍA SOLEDAD FERNÁNDEZ; DOMINGO JAVIER LIOTTA; MAGALÍ GIULIANI; SOFÍA LORIÁN MOYA; OSCAR DANIEL SALOMÓN

Annapolis

Simposio; 2018 International Branch Virtual Symposium; 2018

Entomological Society of America

ABSTRACTThe study area includes the localities of Puerto Iguazú and Puerto Libertad, northeast Argentina with records of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis. We divided the urban and periurban environments into a grid of 400 m2, with 55/15 samples sites respectively. In rural areas and natural forests we set 12/13 sample sites. In each site, REDILA light-traps were set for three consecutive nights, and 48 meso and microscale environmental characteristics surveyed. Six landcover classes was estimated for surface areas between 0.27 and 20.25 hectares. The best area was selected comparing the deviance explained by adjusted GLM. To evaluate the possible determinants for each vector we developed a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model. We analyzed females for detection of Leishmania infantum DNA with BLASTm.Lutzomyia longipalpis-Ll abundance was better explained by the land cover characteristics of the area of 20.25ha, and for Nyssomyia whitmani-Nw the areas of 1.05ha and 20.25ha. The significant variables for the ?zero-inflated? component were the presence of chicks (micro scale) and NDWI (meso scale), while the abundance was related to A) Mesoscale: drinking water network, garbage collection, sewer and B) Microscale: availability of different blood sources (hens, dogs or both). Leshmania infantum DNA was detected in 7/369, 5 Ll, 1 Nw and 1 Micropygomyia quinquefer. Ll has urban distribution related to urbanization indicators, food presence and water bodies in the closeness. Nw has preference for areas with higher vegetation presence, in mixed landscapes (periurban, rural, natural areas).Financial Support IDRC-Canada Project #107577-001, Ministry of Health of Argentina