Chagas disease is a complex vector borne parasitic disease involving blood feeding Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) insects, also known as kissing bugs, and the vertebrates they feed on. This disease has tremendous impacts on millions of people and is a global health problem. The etiological agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi (Kinetoplastea: Trypanosomatida: Trypanosomatidae), is dep...

Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne disease transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies. Information about blood meal preferences in sand flies is essential to understand the epidemiology of the disease to adopt control measures. In previous studies, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of 359bp fragment of the conserved gene cytochrome b (cyt b) and further sequencing were applied in the study of blood me...

Blood meal analysis (BMA) from ticks allows for the identification of natural hosts of ticks (Acari: Ixodidae). The aim of this study is to identify the blood meal sources of field collected on-host ticks using PCR analysis. DNA of four genera of ticks was isolated and their cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene was amplified to identify host blood meals. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on data o...

Objective Despite numerous reports on the effects of meal frequency on biochemical parameters such as plasma lipid profile, glucose and insulin, there is almost no study to investigate the influence of meal frequency on immune system. In the present article, for the first time, the effect of meal frequency on complement components C3 and C4, as key components of the complement system, has been...

Many studies with fin fish have demonstrated the potential to use alternative dietary protein sources to fish meal based on growth responses, although these trials mostly neglect to determine if such protein sources affect immune function. This study investigated the effect of fish meal replacement with dehulled lupin meal (LPN) or hydrolysed poultry feather meal (FTH). Atlantic salmon (Salmo s...

A learning capacity for feeding is described in many insect species including vectors of diseases, but has never been reported in tsetse flies (Diptera, Glossinidae), the cyclic vectors of human (sleeping sickness) and animal trypanosomoses in Africa. Repeated feeding on the same host species by a disease vector is likely to increase the within-species disease-transmission risk, but to decrease...

A learning capacity for feeding is described in many insect species including vectors of diseases, but has never been reported in tsetse flies (Diptera, Glossinidae), the cyclic vectors of human (sleeping sickness) and animal trypanosomoses in Africa. Repeated feeding on the same host species by a disease vector is likely to increase the within-species disease-transmission risk, but to decrease...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the basal insulin requirement in total daily insulin dose in Japanese type 1 diabetic patients who use the insulin pump. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The basal insulin requirement in 35 type 1 diabetic patients without detectable C-peptide using the insulin pump (Paradigm 712) was investigated during 2-3 weeks of hospitalization. The patients were served diabetic diets...

The effect of consumption of PolyGlycopleX(®) (PGX(®)) was compared to wheat dextrin (WD) in combination with a standard meal, on postprandial satiety and glycaemia in a double-blind, randomised crossover trial, of 14 healthy subjects trained as a satiety panel. At each of six two-hour satiety sessions, subjects consumed one of three different test meals on two separate occasions. The test meal...

The effect of Aspergillus niger-fermented Terminalia catappa seed meal-based diet on the haematological parameters of broiler chicks was studied. T. catappa seed meal was inoculated with A. niger spore suspension and incubated at room temperature for 3 weeks. Forty-five, day-old broiler chicks with an initial average weight of 30.25 ± 2.40 g were divided into three groups of fifteen animals eac...