Feeding frequency and nutritional status of peridomestic populations of Triatoma infestans from Argentina

We studied the nutritional characteristics of peridomestic populations of Triatoma infestans from 25 habitats in an endemic area of Chagas disease in Argentina. The aim was to determine the feeding frequency, fresh weight of adults and older nymphs, and the gonotrophic status of females, in order to compare them with previous studies of domestic populations in the same region. The average infection rate of the bugs and blood meal origins were also determined in order to calculate the maximum risk for Trypanosoma cruzi transmission in these habitats. The number of bugs in each habitat correlated positively with the number of hosts. The estimated number of bites per night was strongly correlated with the total number of bugs collected from that habitat. The shortest biting interval (1.9 and 1.7 days) occurred in November and February, where 52–60% of insects suck blood each night. Adults and nymphs recently fed showed significantly higher fresh weight in November. There was no apparent correlation between the mean weights of adults or nymphs and the number of insects found within each habitat. Bloodmeal analysis showed that most of the bugs (87%) had fed from chicken, with human and dog scarcely represented and no bloodmeals identified from cat. However, human bloodmeals were only identified from chicken coops near the house (<12 m). Almost all females (92–100%) captured during the spring months had been mated, whereas the proportion of mated females decreased significantly during summer (60–71%). The maximum risk (MR) average from these peridomestic habitats was 0.35 bites from infective bugs/night, tenfold lower than MR from domestic habitats. The good nutritional status of recently fed bugs, found in these chicken coops during all the hot season, suggest that active dispersal is unlikely to occur from peridomestic habitats.