Infection susceptibility and vector competence of Rhodnius robustus Larrousse, 1927 and R. pictipes Stal, 1872 (Hemiptera, Reduviidae, Triatominae) for strains of Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas, 1909) (Kinetoplastida, Trypanosomatidae) I, II and IV

Table 1 Mean body weight gain after the infective meal and the mean number of blood trypomastigotes ingested by the fifth-instar nymph pool of Rhodnius robustus and Rhodnius pictipes fed on Swiss mice previously infected with 1400 BT of pure inoculum or mixed inoculum

BT Blood trypomastigotes, G experimental groups, ns not significant, SD standard deviation, TcI, TcII, TcIV discrete typing units
*The Wilcoxon test was used to compare differences in weight gain between experimental groups (G1–G9) after the infective meal, considering a significance level of 5%
^aExperimental groups consisted of mice infected with pure inoculum, consisting of a single strain of Trypanosoma cruzi (G1–G4), or with mixed inoculum, consisting of mixed strains of T. cruzi (G5–G9)

ISSN: 1756-3305