Aislamiento de tres cepas de Leishmanía a partir de Lutzomyia Trapidoi en Colombia

Abstract

In a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis at the Flor Azul settlement, Mariquita county, Tolima departament, Colombia, using ligth traps (C D C). Shannon traps, human bait. animal bait (horse) and manual catches of resting sandflies with aspirators were captured a total of 4.081 and 7.912  of Lutzomyia (Diptera, Psychodidae) from February 1979 to May 1981 belonging to nineteen species. Examination of 3.337 dissected females exhibited promastigotes in 42 out of 2.356 specimens of L. trapidoi. The resting 981 females belonged to other different species including L. shonnoniand L. gomezi of which one specimen of the former and one from the letter were positive for flagellates. Thirty two golden hamsters were inoculated intradermally in the nose with promastigotes from thirty L. trapidoi one L. shonnoni and one L. gomezi. Three Leishmania strains were isolated from promastigotes of L. trapidoi. Ali the three strains are successfully maintained in hamster and in 4 N culture medium. Because of the localization of the flagellates in the midgut of one L. tropidoi infected females and the short incubation period in the hamsters inoculated with the 3 isolated strains and the rapid growth in the culture medium, it is posible to suppose that these strains belong to the Leishmania mexicana complex. It will be necessary to use biochemical methods to characterize and identify these strains of Leishmonia. This is the first time in Colombia, that strains of Leishmonia are isolated from sandflies captured using human bait.