Susceptibilidad de varias especies de triatóminos a una cepa costarricense de <i>Schizotrypanum cruzi</i> Chagas, 1909

Abstract

A study is made of the susceptibility of five species of triatominae to infection by a Costa Rican strain of Schizotrypanum cruz; isolated from a specimen of Triatoma dimidiata and kept in guinea pigs. The Costa Rican vector species, T. dimidiata gave the lowest infection figures, 76.4 per cent; the other four species, all of them of exotic origin, gave the following results: T. infestans (Chile), 86.4 per cent; T. phyllosoma (Mexico), 83.6 per cent; Rhodnius prolixus (El Salvador), 100 per cent; and R. pallescens (Panama), 94. 3 per cent. A discussion is made of the possibility that R. prolixus, at present known only in Costa Rica in the Province of Guanacaste near the Nicaraguan border, might spread further into the country, increasing the seriousness of trypano­somiasis as a health problem. Lastly, it is recommended that R. prolixus be used in Costa Rica for xenodiagnosis, because of its high susceptibility to infection by S. cruz.