Life History Traits and Demographic Parameters of Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) Fed on Human Blood

MEDONE P; BALSALOBRE A; RABINOVICH J. E; MARTI G. A

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Congreso; Synergy in Science: Partnering for Solutions 63rd Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America; 2015

Triatoma infestans (Klug, 1834) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), the main vector of Chagas diseasein South America, feeds primarily on humans, but ethical reasons preclude carrying out demographicalstudies using people. Thus, most laboratory studies of T. infestans are conducted using bird or mammallive hosts that may result in different demographic parameters from those obtained on human blood.Therefore, it is of interest to determine whether the use of an artificial feeder with human blood wouldbe operational to rear triatomines and estimate population growth rates. We estimated life history traitsand demographic parameters using an artificial feeder with human blood and compared them with thoseobtained on live hens. Both groups of T. infestans were kept under constant conditions [2861_C,4065% relative humidity, a photoperiod of 12:12 (L:D) h] and fed weekly. On the basis of age-specificsurvival and age-specific fecundity, we calculated the intrinsic rate of natural increase (r), the finite rateof population growth (k), the net reproductive rate (Ro), and the mean generation time (Tg). Our resultsshow differences in life history traits between blood sources, resulting in smaller population growth rateson human blood than on live hens. Although demographic growth rate was smaller on human blood thanon hens, it still remains positive, so the benefit/cost ratio of this feeding method seems relativelyattractive. We discuss possibility of using the artificial feeder with human blood for both ecological andbehavioral studies.