Trypanosoma cruzi infection reduces the population fitness of Mepraia spinolai, a Chagas disease vector

The hematophagous insect Mepraia spinolai (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) is naturally infected with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas disease in humans. In this study, we compared the demographic parameters of M. spinolai with and without T. cruzi infection. We collected the immature life table data of 479 M. spinolai individuals of control cohort (reared on mice without T. cruzi infection) and 563 M. spinolai individuals of treatment cohort (reared on mice with T. cruzi infection). Nymphs were maintained in individual compartments inside a growth chamber (26°C; 65–75%) until adult emergence; moulting and survival were recorded daily. For the adult life table study of the control, we used 24 pairs of adults from the control cohort. For the adult life table study of T. cruzi-infected cohort, 25 infected females were paired with 25 males from the control cohort. Life table data were analysed using bootstrap-match technique based on the age-stage, two-sex life table. The preadult survival rate (0.5282) of the control cohort was significantly higher than that of the infected cohort (0.2913). However, the mean fecundity of reproductive females (F_r = 22.29 eggs/♀) and net reproductive rate of population (R₀ = 5.07 offspring/individual) of the 0.5th percentile bootstrap-match control cohort were not significantly different from those of the infected cohort (F_r = 23.35 eggs/♀, R₀ = 3.77 offspring/individual). Due to the shorter total preoviposition period and higher proportion of reproductive female, the intrinsic rate of increase (r = 0.0053 d⁻¹) and finite rate of increase (λ = 1.0053 d⁻¹) of control cohort of M. spinolai were significantly higher than those of the T. cruzi-infected cohort (r = 0.0035 d⁻¹, λ = 1.0035 d⁻¹). These results suggest that T. cruzi infection reduces the population fitness of the Chagas disease vector M. spinolai.