Blood meal enhanced onchocerca development and its correlation with fecundity in laboratory reared blackflies (Diptera, Simuliidae)
Ham, P.J.; Gale, C.L.
Tropenmedizin und Parasitologie 35(4): 212-216
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0303-4208 PMID: 6523562 Document Number: 234462
In 3 trials, the numbers of larvae of Onchocerca lienalis developing in its natural vector Simulium ornatum, following intrathoracic injection of precise numbers of microfilariae, was reduced by between 60.2 and 68.4% when flies had not been previously allowed to feed on bovine blood through a chick membrane. Egg production in the flies was greatly reduced by parasitic infection: from means of 315.4 to 378.1 eggs/uninfected fly to 131.7 to 187.5 eggs for each infected fly (50.4 to 51.7% reduction). Thus, fecundity may be a misleading measure of the age of flies if filarial infection is not considered.