A New Method for Feeding Laboratory-Reared Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) Adult Females¹

The mosquito Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) transmits arboviruses including the causative agent for yellow fever and threatens human health in tropical and subtropical areas. To reduce the incidence of infection, a variety of tactics is being developed to keep the population density of this vector mosquito as low as possible. Laboratory research directed to this end requires maintaining laboratory colonies of the insect, which, in this case, requires providing immobilized live animals to A. aegypti adult females for a source of blood for production of viable eggs. Using live animals for this procedure is costly, time consuming, and requires rearing mammalian species in the laboratoy. This study evaluated the impact of supplying the adult females with blood from a domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica L.) mixed with an anticoagulant (7 ml of heparin per liter of blood) on the oviposition rate of A. aegypti. Feeding A. aegypti females with pig blood obtained from a slaughter facility and mixed with heparin produced more eggs (6,994 ± 168) than those allowed to feed on a living hamster as a source of blood (5,483 ± 171). Thus, this methodology is more efficient and economical than the current use of live animals to feed females of A. aegypti.