Therefore, the more likely origin of L. i. chagasi corresponds to the introduction of L. infantum around five hundred years ago, during the colonization of South America by Europeans, through infected domestic dogs. The low divergence found between L. infantum and L. chagasi (0.26%) based on V7V8 SSU rRNA does not explain and/or distinguish between the two hypotheses regarding the evolutionary origin of these species. However, the biogeography of canid hosts, L. donovani complex parasite occurrence and distribution in North America and the low divergence of L. chagasi/L. infantum V7V8 SSU rRNA values strongly support the notion that L. chagasi originated due to introduction of parasites through human actions. This hypothesis is also corroborated by the bottleneck signature of L. chagasi in the New World, accompanied by a thousand-fold decrease in population diversity in comparison with L. infantum in Europe ( Kuhls et al., 2011).