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Trypanosoma cruzi Infection

Does Not Decrease Survival or
Reproduction of the Common
Bed Bug, Cimex lectularius
Jennifer K Peterson et al. Am J Trop Med Hyg.
2018 Mar.
Free PMC article

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Abstract
Although not presently implicated as a vector
of human pathogens, the common bed bug,
Cimex lectularius, has been suspected of
carrying human pathogens because of its
close association with humans and its
obligate hematophagy. Recently, we
characterized the vectorial competence of C.
lectularius for the parasite Trypanosoma
cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease.
We observed that C. lectularius can acquire T.
cruzi infection when fed on T. cruzi-carrying
mice, and subsequently transmit T. cruzi to
uninfected mice. This led us to ask why has C.
lectularius not been implicated in the
transmission of T. cruzi outside of the
laboratory? We hypothesized that T. cruzi
reduces C. lectularius fitness (i.e., survival
and/or reproduction) as an explanation for
why C. lectularius does not to transmit T. cruzi
in natural settings. We tested this hypothesis
by comparing the survival and reproduction of
uninfected and T. cruzi-infected C. lectularius.
We observed that T. cruzi had a variable
effect on C. lectularius survival and
reproduction. There were negligible
differences between treatments in juveniles.
Infected adult females tended to live longer
and produce more eggs. However, no effect
was consistent, and infected bugs showed
more variation in survival and reproduction
metrics than control bugs. We did not observe
any negative effects of T. cruzi infection on C.
lectularius survival or reproduction,
suggesting that decreased fitness in T. cruzi-
infected C. lectularius is not why bed bugs
have not been observed to transmit T. cruzi in
natural settings.

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Publication types
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms
Animals
Bedbugs / parasitology*
Bedbugs / physiology*
Chagas Disease / transmission*
Female
Guinea Pigs
Insect Vectors / parasitology*
Insect Vectors / physiology*
Longevity
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred BALB C
Probability
Reproduction

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