Vector compatibility of Phlebotomus papatasi dependent on differentially induced digestion

Abstract

Infection with Leishmania tropica, a strain specific to the sandfly Phlebotomus papatasi, was inhibited in sandflies fed on turkey blood. Reduction of the parasite number was correlated with the digestive process. A relatively high DNAase level was induced in the gut of the sandfly by the nucleated turkey erythrocytes. This is the first record of vector-pathogen incompatibility, thus induced, and of differentially triggered digestive processes.