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. 2021 Mar 15;9(3):602.
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9030602.

Modelling Sand Fly Lutzomyia longipalpis Attraction to Host Odour: Synthetic Sex-Aggregation Pheromone Dominates the Response

Renata Retkute  1   2 , Erin Dilger  1   3 , James G C Hamilton  4 , Matt J Keeling  1 , Orin Courtenay  1   3
Affiliations

Modelling Sand Fly Lutzomyia longipalpis Attraction to Host Odour: Synthetic Sex-Aggregation Pheromone Dominates the Response

Renata Retkute et al. Microorganisms. .

Abstract

Zoontic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL) due to Leishmania infantum is a potentially fatal protozoan parasitic disease of humans and dogs. In the Americas, dogs are the reservoir and the sand fly, Lutzomyia longipalpis, the principal vector. A synthetic version of the male sand fly produced sex-aggregation pheromone attracts both female and male conspecifics to co-located insecticide, reducing both reservoir infection and vector abundance. However the effect of the synthetic pheromone on the vector's "choice" of host (human, animal reservoir, or dead-end host) for blood feeding in the presence of the pheromone is less well understood. In this study, we developed a modelling framework to allow us to predict the relative attractiveness of the synthetic pheromone and potential alterations in host choice. Our analysis indicates that the synthetic pheromone can attract 53% (95% CIs: 39%-86%) of host-seeking female Lu. longipalpis and thus it out-competes competing host odours. Importantly, the results suggest that the synthetic pheromone can lure vectors away from humans and dogs, such that when co-located with insecticide, it provides protection against transmission leading to human and canine ZVL.

Keywords: Leishmania; Lutzomyia longipalpis; disease prevention; host choice; sex-aggregation pheromone; vector biology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Conceptual representation of host choice model: the behaviour of a sand fly depends on the distance and the strength of stimulus received from various sources: hosts (humans, dogs and chickens) and synthetic pheromone traps. (b) Location of households [30].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportions of Lu. longipalpis as a function of: (a) amount of pheromone (for the experiment A); (b) number of chickens (for the experiment C); (c) amount of pheromone and number of chickens (simulation results). Measured mean and standard deviation are shown in blue and fitted curves in black in (a) and (b).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Lu. longipalpis estimated preference for hosts and pheromones: (a) in the absence of the synthetic pheromone; (b) in the presence of the synthetic pheromone.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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