Geographical distribution of American XXXX and its phlebotomine vectors (Diptera: Psychodidae) in the state of S  o Paulo, Brazil.

@entity4536 @entity7866 @entity238
BACKGROUND: American @entity4536 (ACL) is a re-emerging disease in the state of S  o Paulo, Brazil. It is important to understand both the vector and disease distribution to help design control strategies. As an initial step in applying geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) tools to map disease-risk, the objectives of the present work were to: (i) produce a single database of species distributions of the sand @entity238 vectors in the state of S  o Paulo, (ii) create combined distributional maps of both the incidence of ACL and its sand @entity238 vectors, and (iii) thereby provide individual municipalities with a source of reference material for work carried out in their area. RESULTS: A database containing 910 individual records of sand @entity238 occurrence in the state of S  o Paulo, from 37 different sources, was compiled. These records date from between 1943 to 2009, and describe the presence of at least one of the six incriminated or suspected sand @entity238 vector species in 183/645 (28.4%) municipalities. For the remaining 462 (71.6%) municipalities, we were unable to locate records of any of the six incriminated or suspected sand @entity238 vector species (Nyssomyia intermedia, N. neivai, N. whitmani, Pintomyia fischeri, P. pessoai and Migonemyia migonei). The distribution of each of the six incriminated or suspected vector species of ACL in the state of S  o Paulo were individually mapped and overlaid on the incidence of ACL for the period 1993 to 1995 and 1998 to 2007. Overall, the maps reveal that the six sand @entity238 vector species analyzed have unique and heterogeneous, although often overlapping, distributions. Several sand @entity238 species - Nyssomyia intermedia and N. neivai - are highly localized, while the other sand @entity238 species - N. whitmani, M. migonei, @entity7866 and P. pessoai - are much more broadly distributed. ACL has been reported in 160/183 (87.4%) of the municipalities with records for at least one of the six incriminated or suspected sand @entity238 vector species, while there are no records of any of these sand @entity238 species in 318/478 (66.5%) municipalities with ACL. CONCLUSIONS: The maps produced in this work provide basic data on the distribution of the six incriminated or suspected sand @entity238 vectors of ACL in the state of S  o Paulo, and highlight the complex and geographically heterogeneous pattern of ACL transmission in the region. Further studies are required to clarify the role of each of the six suspected sand @entity238 vector species in different regions of the state of S  o Paulo, especially in the majority of municipalities where ACL is present but sand @entity238 vectors have not yet been identified.
