Effect of blood source on the survival and fecundity of the sandfly Lutzomyia ovallesi Ortiz (Diptera: Psychodidae), vector of Leishmania.

INTRODUCTION The reproductive potential of sandflies depends on various factors, one of which is the type of host available as blood source, which is important in determining their capacity to serve as vectors. OBJECTIVE The present study evaluated the effect of the animal blood source on various biological parameters of Lutzomyia ovallesi (Ortiz) under laboratory conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two-day-old females from a L. ovallesi colony were artificially fed to repletion using a chicken skin membrane with blood from seven different species of vertebrate hosts, horse, dog, cow, chicken, goat, pig and human. Life-span, time of oviposition, time for blood digestion, number of eggs laid, number of eggs retained and the total number of eggs were recorded. RESULTS The results show the influence of blood source on different biological parameters of L. ovallesi. The results showed that in L. ovallesi, chicken blood is the most quickly digested (3.34 days) and gives the longest time of oviposition (5.88 days), the greatest number of eggs retained (10.20 eggs per female) and the greatest fecundity (30.80 eggs per female) compared with the other sources of blood studied. The most satisfactory animal blood source was chicken followed, in descending order, by goat, cow, pig, human, dog and horse. CONCLUSIONS The data showed that, in bio-ecological terms, the best blood source for L. ovallesi was chicken and the least satisfactory one was horse. These results contribute to the understanding of the factors that influence the rearing of the sand fly L. ovallesi under laboratory conditions, and of how dietary factors for adult sand flies affect their biological potential and could have important consequences on the transmission of Leishmania.