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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 75(5), 2006, pp. 893-900
Copyright © 2006 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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TRIATOMA INFESTANS CHOOSES TO FEED UPON IMMUNE PREY

MARIANA M. HECHT, ANA CAROLINA BUSSACOS, SILENE P. LOZZI, JAIME M. SANTANA, AND ANTONIO R.L. TEIXEIRA*
Chagas Disease Multidisciplinary Research Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brazil

Blood-feeding Triatoma infestans obtained its fills from immune chickens in 15 min, but it needed 40 min for feeding upon non-immune chickens. High-titer specific IgGs and skin reactivity against T. infestans saliva antigens were elicited in immune chickens. Fluorescence-labeled leukocytes from non-immune or immune chickens were used to determine sources of blood drawn by equal numbers of triatomines distributed in separate compartments of a hut-like box. It was shown that 64.4 ± 4.7% of the reduviids were captured in the immune chicken room; 35.6 ± 4.5% were present in the non-immune chicken dwelling, and these differences were statistically significant (P < 0.001). Furthermore, T. infestans feeding upon immune birds reached the adult stage 40 days before those feeding upon non-immune birds, and differences were statistically significant. These results appear to have a broad epidemiologic significance as for spreading enzootics; hence, the immunologic status of vertebrate host populations appears to favor T. infestans as the main transmitter of Trypanosoma cruzi.

Received March 23, 2006. Accepted for publication June 13, 2006.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank Meire Maria de Lima and José Marcos Ribeiro for exchanging ideas and criticism and Dr. Eduardo Freitas da Silva for statistical analysis.

Financial support: Support was provided by FINEP-Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas), Brazil.

* Address correspondence to Antonio R. L. Teixeira, Chagas Disease Multidisciplinary Research Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brasília, P.O. Box 04536, 70919-970, Brasília, DF, Brazil. E-mail: ateixeir{at}unb.br

Authors’ addresses: Mariana M. Hecht, Ana Carolina Bussacos, Silene P. Lozzi, Jaime M. Santana, and Antonio R.L. Teixeira, Chagas Disease Multidisciplinary Research Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, University of Brasília, P.O. Box 04536, 70919-970, Brasília, Federal District, Brazil.






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Copyright © 2006 by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.