Detection of high percentage of Trypanosoma cruzi infection, the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, in wild populations of Colombian Caribbean triatomines

Abstract

In Colombia it is estimated that about 900,000 persons are infected with T. cruzi. There are 25 triatomine species and 5 of them have been reported infected with T. cruzi in the Colombian Caribbean region. In order to obtain more information about the triatomine populations in this region, 89 wild triatomines were collected from four Colombian Departments. The most frequent specie collected was Rhodnius pallescens (65%), followed by Rhodnius prolixus (20%), Panstrongylus geniculatus (10.1%) and Triatoma dimidiata (1%), found in Bolivar, Córdoba, Atlántico/Sucre, and Bolívar Departments, respectively. The majority of triatomines (95.5%) were captured in the arboreal ecotope and 76.4% were found infected with T. cruzi. Interestingly, some of these triatomine species were captured in Departments in which they had not previously been reported and also new finding of triatomine species infected with T. cruzi. These results are relevant, because they can be consequence of a continued geographical expansion of this parasite, not only in the Colombian Caribbean region, but even in all Latin America. The information presented here will contribute in the surveillance and control strategies of the vectors infected with T. cruzi that circulate in four department of Colombian Caribbean region in order to interrupt the transmission to human dwelling.

Untangling the transmission dynamics of primary and secondary vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi in Colombia: parasite infection, feeding sources and discrete typing units

“…Herein, insects were found in the three ecotopes and most specimens (both nymphs and adults) were collected in sylvatic habitats mainly in wine ( A. butyracea ) and oil ( Elaeis guineensis ) palm trees, while 21.6% (adults) were collected in domestic habitats. This is consistent with previous studies in Colombia [27, 57, 58, 60, 61] and Panama [40, 58, 62–65], where the percentage of T. cruzi infection is similar to our results. Moreover, it was observed that the main feeding source was human blood across the three ecotopes.…”

“…3a; Table 2; Additional file 3: Table S3), similar to previous reports in Brazil, Venezuela and the Colombian Caribbean region [40, 46, 48, 49]. We detected five DTUs in this species (TcI-TcV) that is in accordance with previous reports in Brazil, Venezuela and the Colombian Orinoco, and showing the interesting permissivity of this species facilitating the transmission of a wide variety of DTUs [10, 46, 48, 51].…”

“…By contrast, herein the frequency of T. cruzi infection was 67.6% and the percentage of feeding with human blood was 75.0% with the presence of TcIDom in some specimens collected in peridomiciliary habitats. Recent studies in Colombia and Venezuela have revealed infection frequencies between 38.0 and 75.0% and the presence of “TcIb” genotype that is associated with the peridomestic cycle [26, 27, 33, 34, 39, 40]. Regarding the DTUs herein detected, most of the specimens were infected with TcI and TcIII (sylvatic DTUs) and domestic specimens harbored TcIII suggesting how T. maculata can connect domestic and sylvatic transmision cycles (Fig.…”

Infestation of arboreal nests of coatis by triatomine species, vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi , in a large Neotropical wetland

“…Species sharing the feeding resources and microhabitat at the same time seems to be unusual in nature, although it was reported even with triatomines. For example, three members of T. rubrovaria species complex have been collected concomitantly under the same rock (Almeida et al and T. dimidiata was found co‐occurring with R. pallecens within the bracts of a A. butyracea palm‐tree (Parra et al Escalante et al Yet, such larger niche overlap is indicative of competition, and co‐occurrence of the two species inhabiting the same shelters in the Pantanal should be investigated not just under the ecological perspective, but also from an epidemiological point of view. After all, both species were infected by T. cruzi and this situation would allow the parasite exchange.…”

“…Triatoma sordida is known for occupying a large variety of ecotopes (Lent and Wygodzinsky 1979), including palms (see Gurgel-Gonçalves et al 2012) and the finding of this species in coati nests reinforces its ecotope eclecticism. On the other hand, Rhodnius is known to be closely associated with palm trees (Gaunt and Miles, 2000, Abad-Franch and Monteiro 2007, Abad-Franch et al 2010, Escalante et al 2015, especially with acuri palms (Attalea phalerata; Justi et al 2010), which are very common in the Pantanal. Matias et al (2003) found R. stali inhabiting dwellings constructed with A. phalerata leaves in Alto Beni, Bolivia, and stated that this palm would be the original sylvatic habitat of R. stali.…”