Vector borne and zoonotic diseases
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Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. · Jan 2012
Case ReportsMolecular diagnosis of Leishmania mexicana in a cutaneous leishmaniasis case in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Leishmaniasis has been considered endemic in Sinaloa, Mexico, since 1994. Despite that Leishmania mexicana is the main etiological agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in other regions of Mexico, the species causing CL in patients from Sinaloa state has not been previously established, although Leishmania braziliensis has been found in the neighboring southern state, Nayarit. ⋯ Due to the implications on individual and public health, the objective of this report was to identify the Leishmania species present in Sinaloa, Mexico. Using the first internal transcribed spacer (ITS-1) polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism, we identified L. mexicana in a CL patient from Sinaloa and confirmed the extended distribution of this parasite in Mexico.
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Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. · Jan 2012
Prevalence of Buggy Creek virus (Togaviridae: Alphavirus) in insect vectors increases over time in the presence of an invasive avian host.
Invasive species can disrupt natural disease dynamics by altering pathogen transmission among native hosts and vectors. The relatively recent occupancy of cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) nesting colonies in western Nebraska by introduced European house sparrows (Passer domesticus) has led to yearly increases in the prevalence of an endemic arbovirus, Buggy Creek virus (BCRV), in its native swallow bug (Oeciacus vicarius) vector at sites containing both the invasive sparrow host and the native swallow host. ⋯ Increased BCRV prevalence in bug vectors at mixed-species colonies may reflect high virus replication rates in house sparrow hosts, resulting in frequent virus transmission between sparrows and swallow bugs. This case represents a rare empirical example of a pathogen effectively switching to an invasive host, documented in the early phases of the host's arrival in a specialized ecosystem and illustrating how an invasive species can promote long-term changes in host-parasite transmission dynamics.