Background: Among the blood-sucking insects, Anopheles mosquitoes have a very special position, because they transmit parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria as one of the main vector-borne disease worldwide. The aim of this review study was to evaluate utility of complete mitochondrial genomes in phylogenetic classification of the species of Anopheles.
Methods: The complete mitochondrial genome sequences belonging to 28 species of the genus Anopheles (n=32) were downloaded from NCBI. The phylogenetic trees were constructed using the ML, NJ, ME, and Bayesian inference meth­ods.
Results: In general, the results of the present survey revealed that the complete mitochondrial genomes act very accu­rately in recognition of the taxonomic and phylogenetic status of these species and provide a higher level of support than those based on individual or partial mitochondrial genes so that by using them, we can meticulously reconstruct and modify Anopheles classification.
Conclusion: Understanding the taxonomic position of Anopheles, can be a very effective step in better planning for controlling these malaria vectors in the world and will improve our knowledge of their evolutionary biology.

Background: Mosquitos due to their role in the transmission of different pathogens to humans are considered as an important group in the phylum Arthropoda. According to the WHO and FAO guideline different groups of insecti­cide applied for controlling pests in both the agricultural and public health sectors.
Methods: All the data published about resistant status of the mosquitoes Anopheles, Culex, Aedes and Culiseta spe­cies were searched on PubMed, Elsevier, Web of Science, Magiran and google scholar. The objectives of this study was to review the trend of resistance to insecticides during 2000–2020 in medically important mosquitoes in Iran. The criteria for resistant are followed according to WHO guideline.
Results: The Results showed that there are widespread, multiple resistances in the country to different organochlo­rine, organophosphates, carbamate and pyrethroids insecticides in the mosquitoes.
Conclusion: The effect of pesticide residues on the environment could be a cause for selection pressure on mosqui­tos and lead to insecticides resistance to them. Insecticides resistance is main challenge of the vector control pro­gram. Also result will provide a guideline for control of the mosquito-borne diseases in the country as well as the world.

Background: The Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is one of the most important arthropod-borne viral dis­eases with a mortality rate of about 30% among humans. The disease, caused by a Nairovirus, is transmitted to humans and animals by hard and soft ticks. This study aimed to determine the distribution of soft and hard ticks in the past three decades in Iran with an emphasis on the vectors of the CCHF virus.
Methods: In this review, all studies that were carried out in different regions of Iran from 1979 to 2018 and their results were published in prestigious journals were used to create a database. The distribution of ticks was mapped using ArcMap10.3.
Results: Based on the results, nine genera and 37 species of soft and hard ticks were recorded in Iran. So far, six genera and 16 species of hard and soft ticks were reported to be infected with the CCHF virus. The infection to this virus was reported from 18 out of 31 provinces, with a high rate in Sistan and Baluchistan as well as Khuzestan provinces. The highest levels of CCHF infection belonged to Hyalomma marginatum and H. anatolicum.
Conclusion: The main vectors of CCHF, H. marginatum and H. anatolicum, were reported in more than 38.7% of Iran's provinces, and these two species were identified as invasive species in Iran. Thus, control activities should be strength­ened to avoid the outbreaks of CCHF.

Background: Scorpion venom has a variety of different components considerably. Some of these compounds are pro­teins such as Phospholipase A2 which is one of the most important. Use of scorpion venom for the treatment of any disease requires an initial study to determine the therapeutic dose or safe dose. Therefore, due to the necessity of study­ing scorpion venom, it is of special importance to study the effects of its dose response in animal tissues.
Methods: To determine the inflammatory effects of scorpion’s venom (Mesobuthus eupeus), 50 Nmri mice with an average weight of 24±7g were selected for investigation in two experiments. In first-round 25 of them were divided into 5 groups and were exposed to different doses of venom injection paralleling the control group. Single-injection of vari­ous doses on 25 mice was performed and results were compared.
Results: There was a significant differences between the test and control groups (in most groups). Liver necrosis was one of the important symptoms in this study, the severity of which was measured and statistically analyzed.
Conclusion: It was determined that 0.05ppm is a safe dose and sub-lethal doses can use for the investigation of thera­peutic effects of venom on cancer, diabetes, dermatitis, and so on.

Background: Mosquitoes are responsible for spreading devastating parasites and pathogens causing some important infectious diseases. The present study was done to better understand and update the fauna of Culicidae and to find out the distribution and the type of their larval habitats in Kashan County.
Methods: This study was done in four districts of Kashan County (Central, Qamasr, Niasar and Barzok). Mosquito lar­vae were collected from 23 active larval habitats using a standard 350ml capacity mosquito dipper from April to late December 2019. The collected larvae were transferred to containers containing lactophenol, and after two weeks indi­vidually mounted in Berlese's fluid on a microscope slide and identified to species by morphological characters and valid keys.
Results: In this study, a total of 9789 larvae were collected from urban and rural areas in Kashan County. The identified genera were Anopheles, Culiseta and Culex. In this study larvae of An. turkhudi, Cx. perexiguus, Cx. mimeticus, Cx. deserticola and Cs. subochrea were collected for the first time from Kashan County.
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the presence and activity of different mosquito species in Kashan County that some of them are vectors of arbovirus and other vector-borne diseases.

Background: Collecting live sand flies from indoor sites is a major challenge for researchers in large cities due to the reluctance of families to survey their homes. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of two methods for col­lecting sand flies for use in susceptibility tests in the urban area of Kerman, southeastern Iran.
Methods: Sandflies were mainly collected using both baited traps and hand catch methods from outdoor and indoor sites. Susceptibility tests were separately done according to the standard World Health Organization testing protocol on Phlebotomus sergenti, including 60-minute exposure to DDT 4.0%, propoxur 0.1%, deltamethrin 0.05%, and malathion 5.0%.
Results: During this research, the natural habitats and suitable indoor sites were selected to predict the density of live sand fly with perfect accuracy. The number of live Ph. sergenti caught by hand catch and baited traps methods was 42 and 361 in indoor and outdoor sites, respectively. The mortality rate of Ph. sergenti exposed to DDT 4%, deltamethrin 0.05, malathion 5%, and propoxur was 100%.
Conclusion: The baited traps showed a significant efficiency compared to hand catch for collecting live Ph. sergenti for use in susceptibility tests in urban areas. The Ph. sergenti collected from both indoor and outdoor sites were suscep­tible to all insecticides.

Background: Canine babesiosis is one of the mainly worldwide-distributed tick-borne haemoprotozoan parasitic dis­eases in dogs.
Methods: A total of 43 blood samples were randomly collected from naturally infected dogs in seven villages from different geographical areas of Meshkin Shahr, Ardabil Province, Iran. The presence of Babesia species detected with standard methods including parasitological and gene sequencing techniques targeting the 18S rRNA gene.
Results: Our results revealed that four dogs 9.3% (4/43) including one female and three male dogs were infected with Babesia. All four Babesia-infected dogs were confirmed B. canis by the molecular-based method. Sequence alignments comparison of the B. canis genotypes A and B, it was revealed that all B. canis isolates belonged to genotype B.
Conclusion: This study provides essential data for subsequently define the critical importance of the molecular studies in management and prevention of the canine babesiosis in Iran.

Background: Malaria is the third most important infectious disease in the world. WHO propose programs for control­ling and elimination of the disease. Malaria elimination program has begun in first phase in Iran from 2010. Climate factors play an important role in transmission and occurrence of malaria infection. The main goal is to investigate the spatial distribution of incidence of malaria during April 2011 to March 2018 in Hormozgan Province and its association with climate covariates.
Methods: The data included 882 confirmed cases gathered from CDC in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. A Poisson-Gamma Random field model with Bayesian approach was used for modeling the data and produces the smoothed standardized incidence rate (SIR).
Results: The SIR for malaria ranged from 0 (Abu Musa and Haji Abad districts) to 280.57 (Bandar–e-Jask). Based on model, temperature (RR= 2.29; 95% credible interval: (1.92–2.78)) and humidity (RR= 1.04; 95% credible interval: (1.03–1.06)) had positive effect on malaria incidence, but rainfall (RR= 0.92; 95% credible interval: (0.90–0.95)) had negative impact. Also, smoothed map represent hot spots in the east of the province and in Qeshm Island.
Conclusion: Based on the analysis of the study results, it was found that the ecological conditions of the region (tem­perature, humidity and rainfall) and population displacement play an important role in the incidence of malaria. There­fore, the malaria surveillance system should continue to be active in the region, focusing on high-risk areas of malaria.

Background: Recovery from cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) leads to protection against further lesion development. In contrast, vaccination using killed parasites does not induce enough protection; the reason(s) is not currently known but might be related to different immune response induced against live versus killed parasites. In this study, Th1/Th2 cyto-kine profiles of CL patients were evaluated against live versus killed Leishmania major.
Methods: In this study peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of the volunteers with active CL lesion (CL), history of CL (HCL) and healthy volunteers were cultured and stimulated with live or killed Leishmania major, the superna-tants were collected and levels of IFN-γ, IL-5 and IL-10 were titrated using ELISA method.
Results: The results showed that IFN-γ levels in CL patients (p< 0.001) and HCL volunteers (p< 0.005) are signifi-cantly higher when stimulated with live than stimulated with killed L. major. IFN-γ production in PBMC volunteers with CL and HCL stimulated with live or heat-killed L. major was significantly (p< 0.001) higher than in unstimulated ones. The level of IL-5 in CL patients (p< 0.005) and HCL volunteers (p< 0.001) are significantly lower when stimulated with live than killed L. major. There was no significant difference between the levels of IL-10 in PBMC stimulated with either live or killed L. major.
Conclusion: It is concluded that using live Leishmania induces a stronger Th1 type of immune response which justify using leishmanization as a control measure against CL.

Background: West Nile Virus (WNV) is an arboviral infection continuing to be as major threat to human health as well as the livestock industry all around the world. Birds including pigeons are one of the potential reservoirs for WNV. This study aimed to detect the presence of WNV genome in feral pigeons circulating in Semnan and Khorasane-Razavi Provinces (Iran) including 10 urban and 10 suburban areas.
Methods: Totally, 150 samples (brain and kidney) were collected equally from feral pigeons and the presence of WNV genome was evaluated in these samples after RNA extraction.
Results: All the samples were negative for the presence of WNV-RNA in this investigation.
Conclusion: Although obtained result indicated no evidence of WNV genome in feral pigeons but complementary studies regarding serologic detection of WNV in vertebrate hosts as well as pigeons and identification of arthropod vectors seems necessary for comprehensive determination about infection status in these areas.