Artificial blood feeding for Culicidae colony maintenance in laboratories: does the blood source condition matter?

Abstract

Culicidae colonization in laboratory is paramount to conduct studies aiming at a better understanding of mosquitoes' capacity to transmit pathogens that cause deadly diseases. Colonization requires female blood feeding, a necessary step for maturation of female's oocytes. Direct blood feeding on anesthetized mammals implies in a number of disadvantages when compared to artificial blood feeding. Consequently, laboratories worldwide have been trying to -feed female mosquitoes artificially in order to replace direct feeding. In this study, we compared the effects of direct blood feeding and artificial blood feeding on important life traits of three Culicidae species. Artificial feeding was performed using citrated or defibrinated sheep blood and citrated or defibrinated rabbit blood. Direct feeding was performed using anesthetized guinea pigs as the blood source and the experiment control. Results indicated that artificial feeding using sheep blood was not good enough to justify its use in the maintenance of laboratory colonies of Culicidae. However, artificial feeding using rabbit blood maintained a recovery rate always very close to the control, especially when blood was citrated. We concluded that artificial feeding using citrated rabbit blood can substitute direct feeding on mammals reducing the use of animals, eliminating the need to maintain a bioterium in the laboratory and reducing costs in scientific researches involving Culicidae vectors.

Heparin Administered to Anopheles in Membrane Feeding Assays Blocks Plasmodium Development in the Mosquito

“…An alternative approach could be provided by offering heparin to mosquitoes in an artificial diet simulating vertebrate blood. The available technology is capable of manufacturing artificial blood for mosquito feeding from hemoglobin obtained from citrated rabbit blood [ 32 ], outdated bovine blood [ 33 ], and other blood-free artificial liquid diets [ 34 , 35 , 36 ]. These substitutes mimic in the mosquito the physiological effects of a fresh vertebrate blood meal, supporting ovarian and egg maturation and normal development of offspring into functional adults.…”

Assessment of Synthetic Membranes for Artificial Blood Feeding of Culicidae

“…Collagen and a latex glove were evaluated and compared with Parafilm ® (Pechinery Plastic Packaging, Neenah, WI, USA). Parafilm ® was cut to 5 × 5 cm size and stretched to 15 × 15 cm, thereby reducing the thickness of the membrane in order to facilitate feeding according to a procedure standardized by Dias et al [ 7 ]. The latex-glove membrane was cut to 3 × 3 cm size and washed in dechlorinated tap water to remove the powder covering the inner part of the glove.…”

“…The ability of Culicidae vectors to transmit pathogens during hematophagy is a major public-health problem [ 2 ]; several studies [ 3 , 4 , 5 ] were conducted to better understand this phenomenon. Many of these studies require the establishment of laboratory mosquito colonies that require a blood supply for maintenance [ 6 , 7 ]. Obtaining blood from animals in vivo is still a standard procedure, but this must comply with the current laws, protocols, and regulations approved by ethics committees and regulatory bodies [ 8 ].…”

“…This led the scientific community to replace traditional methods, which include the use of animals applied to teaching and scientific research, with alternative methods. The search for new technologies will eventually restrict the use of animals [ 6 , 7 , 11 ].…”

Simplified artificial blood feeding and oral infection method for mosquitoes

“…Additionally, animal usage is expensive, since it needs maintenance and specialized personnel to handle the animals (Teresa et al, 2011;Dias et al, 2018).…”