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A study of the phenetics of the zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis agent in Uzbekistan and subzone of southern and northern deserts has made it possible to separate a northern population (or a group of populations) of the agent. It differs from the southern population (or southern ones) in having smaller sizes of the amastigote stage, greater abundance of parasites in cutaneous affections of gerbils, milder progress of leishmaniasis in white mice and great gerbils. This population can be called priaral, i.e. belonging to the subzone of northern deserts of the Turan lowland.

Three zones of esterase activity were established in zymograms of erythrocyte lysates in karakul sheep by means of starch gel electrophoresis. These zones were distinguished according to their substrate specificity and inhibition tests and desnguated as arylesterase (I), carbonic anhydrase (II) and aliesterase (III). The following phenotypes of erythrocyte arylesterase were distinguished in the two populations of karakul sheep studied: AEs - A, AEs - AB, AEs - AC, AEs - AD, AEs - B, AEs - BC, AEs - BD, AEs - C, AEs - CD, AEs - D. These phenotypes are controlled by 4 dominant alleles, VIZ. AEsA, AEsB, AEsC, AEsD. Gene frequencies vary from population to population: from 0.012 +/- 0.005 to 0.118 +/- 0.027, from 0.331 +/- 0.021 to 0.340 +/- 0.012, from 0.601 +/- 0.022 to 0.250 +/- 0.011 and from 0.056 +/- 0.003 to 0.292 +/- 0.011 for AEsA, AEsB, AEsC and AEsD respectively. The actually observed distribution of arylesterase phenotypes is in accordance with the theoretically expected values (p is less than 0.95).