During an outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis in a locality (Las Rosas, Cojedes State, Venezuela) previously non-endemic, 12.9% of humans, 7% of dogs and 21.4% of donkeys (Equus asinus) had lesions with parasites. The agent in the three hosts was identified as Leishmania braziliensis, subspecies braziliensis at least in man and donkey. The probable vector was Lutzomyia panamensis. No infection was found in a small sample of wild mammals examined. The outbreak was apparently linked with the importation of donkeys with ulcers, from endemic areas. The authors call attention to the fact that not only in the foci of "uta", but also in areas of the other forms of American cutaneous leishmaniasis, dogs are frequently found infected. They emphasize the necessity of searching for the infection in donkeys and of performing hemocultures and xenodiagnosis with sandflies in human, canine and equine cases, to verify their possible role as sources of infection, and not merely as dead ends in the epidemiological chain of the disease.

ing to the country the appearence and spreading of the disease in suburban areas of big cities one of 16 16 Urban Visceral Leishmaniasis in Venezuela CM Aguiar et al. Study area Carabobo State Valencia city Location of "Barrio Los Magallanes" in a suburban area of the city of Valencia, Venezuela. tives (21/77). We searched for parasites in 13 dogs with positive serology, after auptopsy, finding amastigotes in Giemsa stained samples of ear pinna, bone marrow and/or liver in eigth dogs. An indoor and outdoor capture strategy using a Shannon trap, during one year of capture (August 1992-July 1993) was captured a total of 1757 species: 1280 (72.9%) Lu. evansi, 23 (1.3%) Lu. longipalpis and 454 (25.8%) the other species. So