In Uzbekistan, the number of reported leishmaniasis cases is rising at the alarming rate. In this work, we studied the phlebotomine sand fly (Diptera: Phlebotominae) diversity in the foci of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Surxondaryo Region of Uzbekistan and compared it with the data obtained for the same area 50 years ago, when infection prevalence was reportedly low. We found that the implicated vector for zoonotic leishmaniasis, P. papatasi, remained eudominant; the proportion of implicated anthroponotic leishmaniasis vector, P. sergenti, rose significantly from averaged 5.4 to 41.4%; Phlebotomus alexandri, a suspected visceral leishmaniasis vector, was eudominant at two sites, and a second suspected vector for this disease, P. longiductus, was newly recorded in the region. We conclude that the increase in the documented cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Surxondaryo Region of Uzbekistan may be connected to the changes in fauna of sand flies vectoring Leishmania spp.

Department of Parasitology Faculty of Science Charles University 128 00 Prague Czechia

Isayev Research Institute of Microbiology Virology Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Samarkand State Medical University 140100 Samarkand Uzbekistan

Life Science Research Centre Faculty of Science University of Ostrava 710 00 Ostrava Czechia

St Petersburg State Agrarian University St Petersburg 196605 Russia

Termiz Branch of Tashkent Medical Academy 132000 Termiz Uzbekistan

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