Marques Joana, Cardoso João C R, Félix Rute C, Power Deborah M, Silveira Henrique
Global Health and Tropical Medicine, GHTM, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, IHMT-NOVA.
Comparative Endocrinology and Integrative Biology, Centre of Marine Sciences, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas.
J Vis Exp. 2020 Jan 31(155). doi: 10.3791/60144.
Malaria research requires large-scale breeding and production conditions for mosquitoes (Anopheles spp.) in captivity. The sustainable and reliable production of mosquitoes is currently inhibited by the supply of fresh vertebrate blood. Alternatives to blood are required to promote efficient control strategies for malaria and other vector borne diseases that are transmitted by blood feeding insects. With this in mind, artificial liquid diets were formulated as substitutes for fresh vertebrate blood. Herein we report a blood-free artificial liquid diet that delivers feeding rates similar to blood and mimics the physiological effects of a fresh vertebrate blood meal. The diet induces ovarian and egg maturation of Anopheles mosquitoes and also produces good larval survival and development of functional adults. The formulated blood-free liquid diet is an important advance towards sustainable mosquito breeding in captivity and will reduce the maintenance costs of mosquito colonies and eliminate the need for fresh vertebrate blood.
疟疾研究需要在圈养条件下大规模饲养和繁殖蚊子（按蚊属）。目前，新鲜脊椎动物血液的供应限制了蚊子的可持续且可靠的繁殖。需要血液替代品来推动针对疟疾和其他由吸血昆虫传播的媒介传播疾病的有效控制策略。考虑到这一点，人们配制了人工液体饲料来替代新鲜脊椎动物血液。在此，我们报告一种无血人工液体饲料，其喂食率与血液相似，并模拟了新鲜脊椎动物血餐的生理效应。这种饲料可诱导按蚊卵巢和卵子成熟，还能使幼虫良好存活并发育出功能正常的成虫。所配制的无血液体饲料是圈养条件下可持续蚊子繁殖的一项重要进展，将降低蚊子种群的维持成本，并消除对新鲜脊椎动物血液的需求。
