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Abstract
Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by infection with Trypanosoma cruzi. The parasite is endemic to the Americas, including the Caribbean, where it is vectored by triatomine bugs. Although Chagas disease is not considered a public health concern in the Caribbean islands, studies in Trinidad have found T. cruzi-seropositive humans and T. cruzi-infected triatomine bugs. However, little is known about triatomine bug host preferences in Trinidad, making it difficult to evaluate local risk of vector-borne T. cruzi transmission to humans. To investigate this question, we collected triatomine bugs in Trinidad and diagnosed each one for T. cruzi infection (microscopy and PCR). We then carried out a blood meal analysis using DNA extracted from each bug (PCR and sequencing). Fifty-five adult bugs (54 Panstrongylus geniculatus and one Rhodnius pictipes) were collected from five of 21 sample sites. All successful collection sites were residential. Forty-six out of the 55 bugs (83.6%) were infected with T. cruzi. Fifty-three blood meal hosts were successfully analyzed (one per bug), which consisted of wild birds (7% of all blood meals), wild mammals (17%), chickens (19%), and humans (57%). Of the 30 bugs with human blood meals, 26 (87%) were from bugs infected with T. cruzi. Although preliminary, our results align with previous work in which P. geniculatus in Trinidad had high levels of T. cruzi infection. Furthermore, our findings suggest that P. geniculatus moves between human and animal environments in Trinidad, feeding opportunistically on a wide range of species. Our findings highlight a critical need for further studies of Chagas disease in Trinidad in order to estimate the public health risk and implement necessary preventative and control measures.
Highlights
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi
The authors report that 49 of the 72 patients (68.06%) had T. cruzi trypomastigotes in peripheral blood, this number seems unusually high. While these findings provide mounting evidence of a vector-borne Chagas disease transmission cycle existing in Trinidad, there are no known published data demonstrating the species on which T. cruzi-infected triatomine bugs are feeding, other than a single wild rat found infected with T. cruzi in 1963 [27]
The results of our blood meal analysis suggest that T. cruzi in Trinidad may not be strictly enzootic, but rather could be a parasite of humans, domestic animals, and wild animals
Summary
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) caused by infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The authors report that 49 of the 72 patients (68.06%) had T. cruzi trypomastigotes in peripheral blood, this number seems unusually high While these findings provide mounting evidence of a vector-borne Chagas disease transmission cycle existing in Trinidad, there are no known published data demonstrating the species on which T. cruzi-infected triatomine bugs are feeding, other than a single wild rat found infected with T. cruzi in 1963 [27]. Identification of the host species with which triatomines come into contact by taking a blood meal can give us a sense of the frequency with which the bugs invade domestic environments, and in turn, the risk of vector-borne Chagas disease. Chagas disease information pamphlets with pictures of local bug species were distributed (Figure S1) to those residing near positive collection sites
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