Simplified artificial blood feeding and oral infection method for mosquitoes

Abstract

ABSTRACTMosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Culex quinquefasciatus are vectors of many pathogens that greatly affect humankind. The maintenance of these mosquitoes in laboratory permit different studies that can help understanding their biology, as well as the vector-pathogen interaction. In addition to sugar meals, the blood feeding is essential for maintenance of the reproductive cycle in several vectors. The main blood sources for many mosquito colonies are direct feeding on live animal or the use of human/animal blood through artificial feeders. However, this latter process has some disadvantages, as artificial feeders can be very laborious for assembly and decontamination. Based on these observations, a simplified technique for feeding and artificial infection was developed with cotton-pads soaked (CS) and blood or blood and viral supernatant to simulate an artificial infection. The efficiency of the CS technique was investigated through the number of mosquitoes fed/infected, when compared to their respective control group. The CS technique, with blood at room temperature, promoted a feeding rate of 61.4% for Ae. albopictus, 70.8% for Cx. quinquefasciatus and 17% for Ae. aegypti. The control group (Hemotec-feeding) presented 47.9%, 16.5% and 59.1% of feeding success, respectively. To improve the CS technique for Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, the procedure was then performed with blood at 38°C, which was possible to observe a feeding rate of 47.3%, in comparison to 53.2% for the control group (Hemotec). When using the CS technique for artificial infection with Mayaro virus, more than 80% of infection was observed for Ae. aegypti and 100% for Ae. albopictus. In the traditional infection technique (glass feeder), the infection rate was 90% (Ae. aegypti) and 96.6% (Ae. albopictus). For Cx. quinquefasciatus, the infection was positive only with the CS technique, resulting in 1 (5%) mosquito infected with Mayaro virus. Our results suggest that this simplified technique of low-cost feeding and easy assembly, offers good results for feeding (maintenance of colonies) and artificial infection of different species of mosquitoes.