Development of new tools for monitoring triatomines, vectors of Chagas disease, by manipulating their olfactory behavior

GUERENSTEIN P.G.

Simposio; XV Symposium of Biosciences and Biotechnology Applied to Pharmacy; 2020

Triatominesare hemipteran insects, vectors of Chagas disease, an important neglectedtropical disease.  The prevention ofvector-borne transmission of Chagas disease in endemic areas relies onsuppressing house infestations by triatomine bugs.  We aim at developing an efficient host-basedodor blend attractant to be used as lure in a trap to monitor, and helpcontrol, triatomines.  Moreover, we seekto develop a monitoring tool as simple, practical and cheap as possible.  For this, we study the olfactory physiologyand behavior of the insects.  Physiologywork includes studying the responses of olfactory brain neurons to single hostodorants and their mixtures. This information is useful to build a list ofcandidate host-based odor mixtures to be tested as attractants. Behavior workincludes studies of attraction and capture evoked by the odor stimuli mentioned.  Importantly, this work includes tests inrelatively large cages that contain traps lured with our odor mixtures.  The information gained from these tests results in alist of efficient attractant odor mixtures that deserve to be tested in a trapin the field.  As a result of our work, a field trap lured with a CO2-free,host-based, odor mixture is proposed.