International Journal of Tropical Insect Science

Table of Contents - 2010 - Volume 30, Issue 03  

Short Communication

Improved survival of laboratory-reared tsetse flies Glossina morsitans morsitans (Diptera: Glossinidae) through use of homidium bromide-treated blood diet

James Karuku Kibugua1 c1, James Ngugi Mwangia2, Japhet Mutegi Kiragua1, Margaret Wanjiku Muchiria1, Kariuki Ndung'ua1 and Raymond Ellie Mdachia1

a1 Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Trypanosomiasis Research Centre, PO Box 362-00902 Kikuyu, Kenya

a2 KARI, Social Economics and Biometrics Division, PO Box 57811-00200, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Homidium bromide is a broad-spectrum anti-microbial trypanocide likely to be encountered as a violative residue in blood collected from abattoirs destined for feeding laboratory-reared tsetse colonies. We investigated its effects on longevity of laboratory-reared Glossina morsitans morsitans Westwood. Four steers were intra-muscularly administered with 1 mg homidium bromide/kg of body weight and blood was aseptically collected from them between 15 and 30 min post-administration. This blood was defibrinated, analysed for homidium levels, screened for bacterial contamination, frozen and warmed to 37°C before feeding to tsetse flies. Teneral male (100) and female (220) G. m. morsitans flies were fed on homidium-treated diet, and control flies (99 males and 187 females) on untreated blood diet and their survival monitored for 163 days. Homidium, at 266.15 ng/ml blood diet, significantly (P < 0.05) improved fly survival. We concluded that homidium bromide has a beneficial effect on tsetse, probably attributable to its antimicrobial activity against unfavourable microbes mediated by the drug, and could be used as a tsetse diet additive.

(Accepted June 20 2010)

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Correspondence:

c1 E-mail: jkkibugu@yahoo.com

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