CARVALHO, Gílcia Aparecida de.; ALVES, Leucio Câmara.; MAIA, Rafael Trindade.; ANDRADE, Carlos Fernando Salgueirosa de.; RAMOS, Rafael Antonio do Nascimento.; FAUSTINO, Maria Aparecida da Glória.
Resumo:
. Vector competence of Culex quinquefasciatus Say, 1823 exposed to different densities of microfilariae of
Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy, 1856). The metropolitan region of Recife, Brazil is endemic for Dirofilaria immitis and has
an environment favorable to the development of Culex quinquefasciatus. The goal of this study was to evaluate the
vector competence of the Cx. quinquefasciatus RECIFE population for D. immitis transmission. A total of 2,104
females of Cx. quinquefasciatus RECIFE population were exposed to different densities of D. immitis microfilariae blood
meals, ranging from 1,820 to 2,900 mf/ml of blood, in a natural membrane apparatus. The results showed a variation
between 92.3% and 98.8% of females fed. The exposure of the Cx. quinquefasciatus RECIFE population to different
densities of microfilariae did not influence the mortality of the mosquitoes. Infective larvae from D. immitis were
observed in the Malpighian tubules beginning on the 12th day, whereas larvae were observed in the head and proboscis
beginning on the 13th day following infection. The vector efficiency index (VEI) presented by the mosquitoes ranged
from 7.8 to 56.5. The data demonstrates that the Cx. quinquefasciatus RECIFE population has great potential for the
transmission of D. immitis, as it allowed the development of the filarid until the infectious stage at the different densities
of microfilariae to which it was exposed.