ENTOMOLOGICAL STUDY OF FLEBOTOMINE POPULATION IN A PRIORITY AREA FOR VISCERAL LEISHMANIASIS IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF ARAÇATUBA, SÃO PAULO.

• Grant number: 22/11431-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• End date: September 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Katia Denise Saraiva Bresciani
• Grantee: Heloísa Batista Costa Giacomini
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária (FMVA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araçatuba. Araçatuba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disease of great epidemiological importance worldwide. In Brazil, this parasitosis is caused by Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum chagasi, being transmitted to humans, wild and domestic animals by bites of the sand fly vectors. Within this scenario, in this research project, the objective will be to investigate the occurrence of sandflies and carry out the molecular detection of Leishmania spp. in engorged females captured in a priority area in the municipality of Araçatuba, SP, region endemic for VL. For the accomplishment of this work, will be collected Monthly sand flies with 14 CDC (Center on Disease Control) type light-bait traps, that will be installed at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FMV), Unesp, Araçatuba, Municipal Zoo Dr. Flávio Leite Ribeiro and Faculty of Technology of Araçatuba (FATEC) Professor Fernando de Amaral de Almeida Prado, which are located in an ATL (Local Work Area) in the city of Araçatuba, SP. The engorged females will be separated for species identification and molecular detection of Leishmania spp. In this sense, In this work, the epidemiological situation of VL will be verified in special properties within ATL of the municipality as well as there will be a contribution to entomological surveillance in places with high circulation of people and animals. As a way of analyzing the results of this escriptive statistical analysis will be carried out, with the vector density in each of the three study areas, estimated by calculating the number of vectors captured by their área geographic (in km²). By means of the chi-square or Fisher's exact test, the difference between areas and/or sectors. For statistical inference, the presence of infection by Leishmania will be considered a dependent variable and other factors will be considered. as independent variables. To assess the statistical correlation between climate variables, capture and diagnosis of infection in sandflies, a model of multilevel regression, in which a logistic regression test will first be performed univariate, and later a multilevel logistic regression, considering the sectors as a random variable.