Leishmania (Leishmania) tropica (Wright, 1903) The finding and isolation of L. tropica in Oman is not surprising. This parasite suspected of being responsible for CL [64], was recently isolated in Muscat from a Pakistani resident [65]. Moreover, several countries in the Middle East (Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan) and East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan) are known foci of L. tropica CL [8, 13, 53]. In neighbouring Yemen, there is an increasing trend of L. tropica CL [31 – 33]. Our results show the strain we isolated in the present study is related to Middle Eastern strains confirming the high polymorphism of L. tropica species and the description of a new variant zymodeme ROM 102 (ZMON 39 cluster). The L. tropica isolation in a young girl who had never left the Dhofar region (case LCO 4, strain IBM-105) suggests the hypothetic vectorial role of Ph. saevus, the only Paraphlebotomus well represented on the site with 56 specimens caught (Tables 2 and 3), and the only member of the genus Phlebotomus, except one male of Ph. bergeroti.

Published as part of Rioux, Jean-Antoine, Gramiccia, Marina, Léger, Nicole, Desjeux, Philippe & Depaquit, Jérôme, 2020, Leishmaniasis and phlebotomine sand flies in Oman Sultanate, pp. 1-13 in Parasite (Paris, France) (Paris, France) 27 (68) on page 10, DOI: 10.1051/parasite/2020064, http://zenodo.org/record/12524365