Natural focality of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Middle Emba Region
Dubrovskiĭ, I.A.; Saf'ianova, V.M.
Meditsinskaia Parazitologiia i Parazitarnye Bolezni 40(5): 556-561
1971
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-8326 PMID: 4257589 Document Number: 33166
Natural foci of cutaneous leishmaniasis were found in colonies of great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) along the left bank of the Emba river [in Kazakhstan], at the edge of the distributional area of the species. The infection rate among the rodents in different colonies was moderate to high. The circulation of leishmaniae among rodents begins not later than the second half of June. Only a single species of sandfly, Phlebotomus mongolensis Sinton, was found in burrows of great gerbils, and in June it was as abundant as in optimal sand-fly habitats in Central Asia. Two generations may develop during the summer. The great abundance of reservoirs and vectors of the disease, and of its causal agent suggest that natural foci of cutaneous leishmaniasis exist as stable biocoenoses in the middle part of the Emba basin.