Abstract
Chagas disease is mainly transmitted by triatomine insect vectors that feed on vertebrate blood. The disease has complex domiciliary infestation patterns and parasite transmission dynamics, influenced by biological, ecological, and socioeconomic factors. In this context, feeding patterns have been used to understand vector movement and transmission risk. Recently, a new technique using Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) targeting hemoglobin peptides has showed excellent results for understanding triatomines’ feeding patterns. The aim of this study was to further develop the automated computational analysis pipeline for peptide sequence taxonomic identification, enhancing the ability to analyze large datasets data. We then used the enhanced pipeline to evaluate the feeding patterns of Triatoma dimidiata, along with domiciliary infestation risk variables, such as unkempt piles of firewood or construction material, cracks in bajareque and adobe walls and intradomiciliary animals. Our new python scripts were able to detect blood meal sources in 100% of the bugs analyzed and identified nine different species of blood meal sources. Human, chicken, and dog were the main blood sources found in 78.7%, 50.4% and 44.8% of the bugs, respectively. In addition, 14% of the bugs feeding on chicken and 15% of those feeding on dogs were captured in houses with no evidence of those animals being present. This suggests a high mobility among ecotopes and houses. Two of the three main blood sources, dog and chicken, were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by domiciliary infestation risk variables, including cracks in walls, construction material and birds sleeping in the intradomicile. This suggests that these variables are important for maintaining reproducing Triatoma dimidiata populations and that it is critical to mitigate these variables in all the houses of a village for effective control of these mobile vectors.
Highlights
Chagas disease is a debilitating, life-threatening, and neglected disease that affects vital organs, especially the heart and digestive tract
Chagas disease is mainly transmitted by triatomine insect vectors that feed on vertebrate blood
We found that Anonito had a 36.5% infestation, 71.2% colonization, 36.5% intradomiciliary infestation and 1.66% peridomiciliary infestation
Summary
Chagas disease is a debilitating, life-threatening, and neglected disease that affects vital organs, especially the heart and digestive tract. Chagas is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas, 1909) (Kinetoplastida, Trypanosomatidae) [1] and is endemic throughout Latin America, mostly in rural areas and especially in poor communities [2]. The combined dynamics of the disease are estimated to cost 500 million US dollars annually across Latin America [4]. The parasite can be transmitted by 154 species of blood feeding insect vectors of the subfamily Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) [5]. Vector control is the most cost-effective strategy for disease prevention [2]; reducing the domiciliary infestation of Chagas vectors is a major objective [6]
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