Abstract
BackgroundChagas disease is a major public health problem in Latin America. Its etiologic agent, Trypanosoma cruzi, is mainly transmitted through the contaminated faeces of blood-sucking insects called triatomines. Triatoma infestans is the main vector in various countries in South America and recently, several foci of wild populations of this species have been described in Bolivia and other countries. These wild populations are suspected of affecting the success of insecticide control campaigns being carried out in South America. To assess the risk that these T. infestans populations pose to human health, it is helpful to determine blood meal sources.MethodsIn the present work, blood meals were identified in various Bolivian wild T. infestans populations and in three specific areas, in both wild and intra-peridomestic populations to assess the links between wild and domestic cycles of T. cruzi transmission. PCR-HDA and sequencing of Cytb gene were used to identify these blood meal sources.Results and discussionFourteen vertebrate species were identified as wild blood meal sources. Of those, the most prevalent species were two Andean endemic rodents, Octodontomys gliroides (36 %) and Galea musteloides (30 %), while humans were the third most prevalent source (18.7 %). Of 163 blood meals from peridomestic areas, more than half were chickens, and the others were generally domestic animals or humans. Interestingly, blood from wild animals was identified in triatomines captured in the peridomestic and domestic environment, and blood from domestic animals was found in triatomines captured in the wild, revealing links between wild and domestic cycles of T. cruzi transmission.ConclusionThe current study suggests that wild T. infestans attack humans in the wild, but is also able to bite humans in domestic settings before going back to its natural environment. These results support the risk to human health posed by wild populations of T. infestans.
Highlights
Chagas disease is a major public health problem in Latin America
These results support the risk to human health posed by wild populations of T. infestans
In Bolivia and other South American countries, T. infestans is the target of large-scale campaigns of vector control based on insecticide spraying
Summary
Chagas disease is a major public health problem in Latin America. Its etiologic agent, Trypanosoma cruzi, is mainly transmitted through the contaminated faeces of blood-sucking insects called triatomines. The discovery of wild populations of T. infestans in other ecoregions such as Bolivian Chaco [5, 6] indicates that wild populations of T. infestans in Bolivia are more widely distributed than previously assumed [7,8,9,10,11] They have even been reported in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile [12,13,14]. These wild populations could potentially pose a risk to human health. They can move from the wilderness to human dwellings [15], where they can occasionally come into contact with humans and/or colonize the intra-peridomiciles, creating a dangerous situation of persistence of man-vector contact
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