Laboratory transmission of an Asian strain of Leishmania tropica by the bite of the southern European sand fly Phlebotomus perniciosus.

•Imported cases of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis due to Leishmania tropica are increasingly documented in Europe.•Vector competence for an Asian L. tropica was investigated in Phlebotomus perniciosus, a southwestern European sand fly.•Leishmania tropica developed into abundant metacyclic promastigotes in 20% of laboratory-infected P. perniciosus.•Parasites have been successfully transmitted from infected to naive hamsters by the bite of P. perniciosus.•In particular settings P. perniciosus, a Leishmania infantum vector, may play the role of an occasional L. tropica vector.