Journal
PARASITOLOGY
Volume 139, Issue 12, Pages 1570-1579Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0031182012000856
Keywords
Trypanosoma cruzi; Discrete Typing Units; PCR; Triatoma infestans; Triatoma sordida; Chagas disease
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Funding
- International Development Research Center (EcoHealth Program)
- UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)
- National Institutes of Health/National Science Foundation Ecology of Infectious Disease [R01 TW05836]
- Fogarty International Center
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
- University of Buenos Aires
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We assessed the distribution of Trypanosoma cruzi Discrete Typing Units (DTUs) in domestic and peridomestic Triatoma infestans and Triatoma sordida specimens collected in a well-defined rural area in Pampa del Indio, northeastern Argentina. Microscopically-positive bugs were randomly selected with a multi-level sampling design, and DTUs were identified using direct PCR strategies. TcVI predominated in 61% of 69 T. infestans and in 56% of 9 T. sordida. TcV was the secondary DTU in T. infestans (16%) and was found in 1 T. sordida specimen (11%). Three T. sordida (33%) were found infected with TcI, a DTU also identified in local Didelphis albiventris opossums. Mixed DTU infections occurred rarely (5%) and were detected both directly from the bugs' rectal ampoule and parasite cultures. The identified DTUs and bug collection sites of T. infestans were significantly associated. Bugs infected with TcV were almost exclusively captured in domiciles whereas those with TcVI were found similarly in domiciles and peridomiciles. All mixed infections occurred in domiciles. TcV-infected bugs fed more often on humans than on dogs, whereas TcVI-infected bugs showed the reverse pattern. T. sordida is a probable sylvatic vector of TcI linked to D. albiventris, and could represent a secondary vector of TcVI and TcV in the domestic/peridomestic cycle.
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