Determination of blood meal sources of Culicoides Latreille (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) in rural areas of the northern Maranhão state, Brazil

Abstract

The stomach contents of females from the genus Culicoides were studied to determine their blood food sources and the degree of relations established between these insects and their hosts. The specimens were captured by using CDC light traps within the period from March 2009 to February 2010, in two rural towns in the island of São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil. A total of 930 engorged females were captured, belonging to 12 Culicoides species. Precipitin reaction examination was used, which revealed the blood from 7 different vertebrate types that had been sucked, and the most frequent were: bird (41.9%), rodent (21.2%), dog (15.4%), and human being (7.3%). In double reactions there was a predominance of bird/dog (20%) and dog/cat, dog/opossum, bird/rodent, opossum/rodent, and cat/human being (13.3% each). Among the Culicoides species found, C. paucienfuscatus Barbosa, 1947 stood out, because it only sucked blood from birds. The 11 remaining species have sucked blood both from domestic and synanthropic animals, and 4 out of them also sucked human blood. The results allowed us to conclude that C. paucienfuscatus showed specific relations, it was considered as ornithophilous and the other species were generalist. The presence of these animals in a peridomestic environment is a factor that favors the maintenance of Culicoides in rural villages and the presence of human being among the most sucked vertebrates indicates that besides being included in the diet of female Culicoides, it may participate in occasional epidemiological cycles of parasites, due to the eclectic habit of these insects.