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. 2018 Dec 17;11(1):642.
doi: 10.1186/s13071-018-3235-4.

Triatoma brasiliensis Neiva, 1911: food sources and diversity of Trypanosoma cruzi in wild and artificial environments of the semiarid region of Ceará, northeastern Brazil

Affiliations

Triatoma brasiliensis Neiva, 1911: food sources and diversity of Trypanosoma cruzi in wild and artificial environments of the semiarid region of Ceará, northeastern Brazil

Claudia Mendonça Bezerra et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: Knowledge of triatomine food sources in different ecotopes enables the estimation of T. cruzi transmission risk in diverse environments, as well as its dynamics of dispersion and ecological niche. For Triatoma brasiliensis in the Caatinga, in the northeast of Brazil, seasonal differences influence feeding eclecticism and rates of T. cruzi infection. The objective of the present study was to monitor food sources and to characterize the populations of T. cruzi associated with T. brasiliensis in wild and domestic environments in the Caatinga of northeast Brazil.

Methods: A cross-sectional study based on a search for triatomines in wild and domestic environments, was undertaken at five different time periods from 2009 to 2015. Insects from 2015 were used for identification of food sources. Two universal primers, based on the conserved regions of the 12S rRNA locus, were used to amplify fragments of 215 bp. The content of the intestinal tract of triatomines was identified by a comparison between the sequences obtained and those deposited in the GenBank database, using BLAST. In triatomines with parasitological diagnosis of infection by trypanosomatids, xenoculture was performed for the isolation and characterization of strains, using cox2, the amplification of the SL-IL mini-exon intergenic spacer and the polymorphism of the D7 divergent domain of the gene 24αrDNA-LSU.

Results: Food sources were identified in 76.3% (213/279) T. brasiliensis specimens sampled in 2015. The most frequent sources in a total of 20 vertebrate species were: rodents (58%, 123/213), ruminants (30%, 64/213) and cats (6%, 12/213). A total of 49% (44/89) of the samples of T. cruzi isolated in the period from 2009 to 2015 were characterized: TcII (43%, 19/44), TcI (41%, 18/44) and TcIII (16%, 7/44).

Conclusions: The feeding eclecticism of T. brasiliensis shows its importance in maintaining the transmission dynamics of T. cruzi, with evidence of intense circulation between anthropic and wild environments. Attention should be placed on the association among T. brasiliensis, rodents and ruminants, in addition to the presence of TcIII in the study region.

Keywords: Brazil; Caatinga; Chagas disease; Discrete typing unit; Eating behavior; Triatoma brasiliensis; Trypanosoma cruzi.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Approved by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation of the Ministry of the Environment (ICMBio/ME), through the Biodiversity Authorization and Information System (BAIS), process # 31,693-1 and authentication code 46619742. The project was submitted to the Animal Ethical Committee of the Federal University of Ceará (protocol 103, October 2011). No human participants were used.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Location of Ceará State, Brazil. b Area of Tauá munipality, Ceará, Brazil. c Study site. d Detail of study site. Circles indicate anthropic environments; triangles indicate wild environments. Source: adapted from Google Earth and QGis 2.14. Essen
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi (TcI: T. cruzi I; TcII: T. cruzi II; TcIII: T. cruzi III) in Triatoma brasiliensis, T. pseudomaculata and Monodelphis domestica caught in different environments in an area of the Caatinga, Tauá municipality Ceará, Brazil, 2009 to 2015. a Total number of T. cruzi characterized by DTU and environment of origin. b Characterization of T. cruzi by DTU according to peridomicile ecotopes of origin
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Map showing the spatial distribution (kernel) of populations of Trypanosoma cruzi characterized in Tauá municipality, Ceará, Brazil, from 2009 to 2015. Blue circles indicate study housing units; black circles indicate intradomicile environments; triangles indicate peridomicile environments; squares indicate wild environments. Abbreviations: TcI, T. cruzi I; TcII, T. cruzi II; TcIII, T. cruzi III

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