TY - NEWS TI - Complex ecological interactions across a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Eastern Colombia: Novel description of Leishmania species, hosts and phlebotomine fauna: Ecological of cutaneous Leishmaniasis AU - Sandoval Ramírez, Claudia-Magaly AU - Hernández, Carolina AU - Teherán, Aníbal A. AU - Gutierrez-Marin, Reinaldo AU - Martínez Vega, Ruth Aralí AB - This study aimed to analyse the patterns of diversity, blood sources and Leishmania species of phlebotomines in a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Arboledas, Eastern Colombia. In total, 1729 phlebotomines were captured in two localities (62.3% Siravita and 37.7% Cinera) and five environments of Norte de Santander. We identified 18 species of phlebotomines: Pintomyia ovallesi (29.8%), Psychodopygus davisi (20.3%), Pi. spinicrassa (18.5%) and Lutzomyia gomezi (15.8%) showed the highest abundance. Species diversities were compared between Cinera (15.00) and Siravita (20.00) and among five microenvironments: forest remnants (19.49), coffee plantations (12.5), grassland (12.99), cane plantations (11.66) and citrus plantations (12.22). Leishmania DNA was detected in 5.8% (80/1380) of females, corresponding mainly to Pi. ovallesi (22/80; 27.2%), Lu. gomezi (17/80; 21.3%) and Pi. spinicrassa (11/80; 13.8%). Leishmania species were 63.1% L. braziliensis, 18.5% L. panamensis, 13.2% L. infantum and 6.1% L. amazonensis. The most frequent feeding sources were Homo sapiens (50%), Bos taurus (13.8%) and Canis lupus familiaris (10.3%). This focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis has a high diversity of Leishmania-carrying phlebotomines that feed on domestic animals. The transmission of leishmaniasis to human hosts was mainly associated with Lu. gomezi, Pi. ovallesi and L. braziliensis. DA - 2020-07-08 KW - Leishmania KW - Phlebotominae KW - Cutaneous leishmaniasis KW - Feeding sources KW - Ecology PB - royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsos UR - https://repositorio.udes.edu.co/handle/001/5638 ER -