Exploiting nectar and blood feeding cues and phagostimulants to optimise Attractive Targeted Sugar Baits against a sand fly vector of leishmaniasis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Leishmaniasis presents a major public health problem for a large number of countries requiring effective integrated management of the vector, sand flies, for sustained control. Such strategies need to be economically and environmentally sustainable and adaptable to the behaviour of local vectors. One such tool is Attractive Targeted Sugar Baits (ATSB) that exploit the necessity of sand flies to acquire sugars between bloodmeals. Here we explored the kinetics and cues for sugar and blood feeding to improve the efficacy of ATSBs against sand flies.

Methods

A fluorescent assay was developed to quantify sugarmeals to assess the feeding efficiency of colony-reared female Lutzomyia longipalpis sand flies.

Results

Sand flies showed a range of preferences for diffe

SUBMITTER: Castro DP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12818734 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature