Triatoma infestans
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Preparation of a Triatoma infestans in the Zoological State Collection in Munich |
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| Clever , 1834 |
Triatoma infestans , known in South America as Vinchuca or Benchuca , belongs to the family of predatory bugs (Reduviidae). Like all species of the subfamily Triatominae , it sucks the blood of mammals and birds and also attacks humans. It is the most common carrier of Chagas disease .
distribution
This predatory bug is widespread in the southern cone of the South American continent. Their original habitat includes the states of Bolivia , Argentina , Paraguay , Chile , Brazil , Peru and formerly Uruguay . In all states Triatoma infestans lives in houses and stables or in the vicinity of human dwellings. Only from Bolivia are populations known that occur in the forests in rocky areas and feed mainly on the blood of wild guinea pigs.
Way of life
Attracted by various chemical compounds, mainly the carbon dioxide exhaled by humans and animals , the bugs often attack animals or humans in large numbers. Charles Darwin already described the suction process in Journal and Remarks , commonly known as The Voyage of the Beagle or a naturalist's journey around the world . The entry of March 25, 1835 states: “It was strange to observe the insect's body while it was suckling, as it changed from a flat shape like a wafer to a spherical ball in less than ten minutes. This one meal, for which the Vinchuca owed one of our officers thanks, kept her fat for four months; but after the first fourteen days she was completely ready to suck again. "
Vectors of disease
Triatoma infestans , along with other representatives of the Triatominae, is a vector of Chagas disease, which was described by Carlos Chagas in 1909 . In the process, Chagas discovered the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma cruzi , which he named after the South American doctor Oswaldo Cruz , as the pathogen of the disease .
However, the pathogen is not, as originally assumed, transferred directly to the blood through the bug's sting, but through the excrement that is excreted during the sucking process. These later come into the wound or the mucous membranes through rubbing and scratching.
In addition to protecting people with well-closing mosquito nets, only control measures against the predatory bugs are seen as a means of preventing the spread of the disease, as vaccines have not yet been found. The measures are coordinated by the American health organization PAHO as part of the Southern Cone Initiative .
In Uruguay, vinchuca has been considered to be extinct since 2012.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b R. B. Barrozo and CR Lazzari: The response of the blood-sucking bug Triatoma infestans to carbon dioxide and other host odours. Chem. Senses. 29, 4, pp. 319-329, 2004 PMID 15150145
- ^ A b Carlos Chagas: (1909b). About a new trypanosomiasis in humans. Archive for Ship and Tropical Hygiene, 13, pp. 351–353, 1909 Online ( Memento from August 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Carlos Chagas: New Trypanosomes. Preliminary communication. Archive for Ship and Tropical Hygiene, 13, 120–122, 1909 Online ( Memento from August 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A b Carlos Chagas: American Trypanosomiasis ( Chagas' disease): Brief aetiological and clinical considerations . s. l., sn, 1925 Online ( Memento from July 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b J. C. Dias: PAHO / WHO - Task force on the initiative of the South Cone for the elimination of vector transmission and interruption of transfusion transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi. Epidemiologic surveillance of Triatoma infestans . Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop., 26, Suppl. 3, pp. 39-44, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte 1993
- ↑ Martín Cajal: Uruguay sin mal de chagas , El Diario , May 25, 2012
Web links
- Fernando Otálora-Luna: Information on Triatominae