Energy costs of blood digestion in a host-specific haematophagous parasite

Sarfati, Michal; Krasnov, Boris R.; Ghazaryan, Lusine; Khokhlova, Irina S.; Fielden, Laura J.; Degen, A. Allan

doi:10.1242/jeb.01676

Cited by 43 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Our calculation of the RQ from stop-flow measures of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide emission rendered values around 0.83 for resting insects, which is close to the consensus value of 0.8 that has been assumed by several authors when only carbon dioxide was measured (Lighton et al, 1993;Sarfati et al, 2005;Lighton, 2008). This value is within the classical interval resulting from burning lipids, proteins and sugar.…”

Section: Unexpectedly Low Respiratory Coefficientsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…It is worth noting that the quantitative analysis of different feeding parameters in several species of haematophagous insects has revealed that they usually feed easier on the host with which they are naturally associated than on other vertebrates (Guarneri et al, 2000;Sarfati et al, 2005). Hence, not only does haematophagous feeding have a cost, but it should also vary with alimentary eclecticism.…”

Section: Feeding Is Costlymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is worth noting that the energetic expenditure for digesting the blood (not considered here) should be added to the cost of obtaining a meal. The latter may also vary according to the host, as shown by Sarfati et al (2005) in fleas that fed on different bat species.…”

Section: Feeding Is Costlymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Haematophagy is costly: respiratory patterns and metabolism during feeding inRhodnius prolixus

Leis

Pereira

Casas

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Feeding on the blood of vertebrates is a risky task for haematophagous insects and it can be reasonably assumed that it should also be costly in terms of energetic expenditure. Blood circulates inside vessels and it must be pumped through narrow tubular stylets to be ingested. We analysed the respiratory pattern and the energetic cost of taking a blood meal in Rhodnius prolixus using flow-through and stop-flow respirometry to measure carbon dioxide emission, oxygen consumption and water loss before and during feeding. We observed an increase of up to 17-fold in the metabolic rate during feeding and a change in the respiratory pattern, which switched from a discontinuous cyclic pattern during resting to a continuous pattern when the insects started to feed, remaining in this condition unchanged for several hours. The energetic cost of taking a meal was significantly higher when bugs fed on a living host, compared with feeding on an artificial feeder. No differences were observed between feeding on blood or on saline solution in vitro, revealing that the substrate for feeding (vessels versus membrane) and not the nature of the fluid was responsible for such a difference in the energetic cost. Water loss significantly increased during feeding, but did not vary with feeding method or type of food. The mean respiratory quotient in resting bugs was 0.83, decreasing during feeding to 0.52. These data constitute the first metabolic measures of an insect during blood feeding and provide the first insights into the energetic expenditure associated with haematophagy.

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Section: Unexpectedly Low Respiratory Coefficientsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Feeding Is Costlymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Haematophagy is costly: respiratory patterns and metabolism during feeding inRhodnius prolixus

Leis

Pereira

Casas

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…The difference in flea feeding time is related to between-species differences in the time necessary for the majority of individuals to complete the blood meal successfully. This time was established for P. chephrenis and X. ramesis from our earlier studies (Sarfati et al, 2005;Khokhlova et al, 2008;Khokhlova et al, 2009a;Khokhlova et al, 2009c). After collecting fleas from a rodent, we examined the midgut of each flea under a light microscope (without dissection) to verify whether a flea took a blood meal and, if yes, to confirm the blood digestion status.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digesting blood of an auxiliary host in fleas: effect of phylogenetic distance from a principal host

Khokhlova

Fielden

Degen

et al. 2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYFleas are haematophagous ectoparasites that exhibit varying degrees of host specificity. Flea abundance is highest on principal hosts and lower on auxiliary hosts but may vary greatly among auxiliary hosts. We investigated the feeding and energy expenditure for digestion in two flea species Parapulex chephrenis and Xenopsylla ramesis on a principal host (Acomys cahirinus and Meriones crassus, respectively) and eight auxiliary host species. We predicted that fleas would perform better -that is (i) a higher proportion of fleas would take a blood meal, (ii) fleas would take larger blood meals and (iii) fleas would spend less energy on digestion -if they fed on (i) a principal host compared with an auxiliary host and (ii) an auxiliary host phylogenetically close to a principal host compared with an auxiliary host phylogenetically distant from a principal host. Energy costs of digestion were estimated using CO 2 emission and represented energy cost during the first stage of blood digestion. Contrary to our predictions, fleas did not always perform better on a principal than on an auxiliary host or on auxiliary hosts phylogenetically closer to the principal host than on auxiliary hosts phylogenetically distant from a principal host. Variation in flea feeding performance may result from the interplay of several factors including co-occurrence between hosts and susceptibility of a host to flea attacks, the species-specific level of immunocompetence of a host and the level of host specificity of a flea. This study describes the first investigation into the metabolic expenditure of parasitism and its relationship to phylogenetic relationships amongst hosts.

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“…We suppose that, in the present study, access to food and blood quality (hence host quality) are the stressors for fleas (Tryjanowski and Adamski 2007). Digestion of blood is energetically costly, hence may affect the parasite body (Sarfati et al 2005). Moreo-…”

Section: Directional Asymmetrymentioning

confidence: 95%

Patterns in the distribution and directional asymmetry of fleas living on the northern white-breasted hedgehog Erinaceus roumanicus

et al. 2017

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Fleas infecting northern white-breasted hedgehogs, Erinaceus roumanicus (Barrett-Hamilton), collected from 2009-2011 in Budapest (Hungary) were studied. A total of 305 white-breasted hedgehogs were captured and 1,251 fleas were collected. The flea community comprised two species, the hedgehog flea Archaeopsylla erinacei (Bouche, 1835) and the dog flea Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826), although the latter was only found on three hedgehogs. Fleas were found on half of the host specimens (51%; n = 156) where their distribution was strongly aggregated. The sex ratio of A. erinacei was biased towards females and was correlated with host size. Interestingly, the sex ratio of fleas became more equal on heavier hosts. It had been expected that, under high competition, the sex ratio would be female biased because it is known that female ectoparasites dominate on poorer hosts. The body size of a random sample of 200 fleas (100 female and 100 male) was measured under a microscope. The analyses showed directional asymmetry in two features -the distance between the top of the head and the eye, and head length. In this two body traits the left side was significantly greater than right side in both sexes of A. erinacei. Our data shed light on the complex nature of the flea population infecting northern white-breasted hedgehogs in an urban area.

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Energy costs of blood digestion in a host-specific haematophagous parasite

Cited by 43 publications

References 36 publications

Haematophagy is costly: respiratory patterns and metabolism during feeding inRhodnius prolixus

Haematophagy is costly: respiratory patterns and metabolism during feeding inRhodnius prolixus

Digesting blood of an auxiliary host in fleas: effect of phylogenetic distance from a principal host

Patterns in the distribution and directional asymmetry of fleas living on the northern white-breasted hedgehog Erinaceus roumanicus

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