부산대학교 도서관

The reliance on blood is a limiting factor for mass rearing of mosquitoes for Sterile-Insect-Technique (SIT) and other mosquito-based control strategies. To solve this problem, we have developed SkitoSnack, a formulated diet for Aedes aegypti (L) mosquitoes, as an alternative for vertebrate blood. Here we addressed the question if long-term yellow fever mosquito culture with SkitoSnack resulted in changed life history traits and fitness of the offspring compared to blood-raised mosquitoes. We also explored if SkitoSnack is suitable to raise Asian tiger mosquitos, Aedes albopictus (L.), and the human bed bug, Cimex lectularius (L). We measured life history traits for 30th generation SkitoSnack-raised Ae. aegypti and 11th generation SkitoSnack-raised Ae. albopictus, and compared them with control mosquitoes raised on blood only. We compared meal preference, flight performance, and reproductive fitness in Ae. aegypti raised on SkitoSnack or blood. We also offered SkitoSnack to bed bug nymphs. We found that long-term culture with SkitoSnack resulted in mosquitoes with similar life history traits compared to bovine blood-raised mosquitoes in both species we studied. Also, Ae. aegypti mosquitoes raised on SkitoSnack had similar flight performance compared to blood raised mosquitoes, were still strongly attracted by human smell and had equal mating success. Minimal feeding occurred in bed bugs. Our results suggest that long-term culture with the blood-meal replacement SkitoSnack results in healthy, fit mosquitoes. Therefore, artificial diets like SkitoSnack can be considered as a viable alternative for vertebrate blood in laboratory mosquito culture as well as for mosquito mass production for Sterile-Insect-Technique mosquito control interventions. SkitoSnack was not suitable to induce engorgement of bed bugs. Author summary: Novel, 'green' mosquito control strategies like Sterile-Insect-Technique, require the production of large numbers of mosquitoes from the targeted species. Females from these species require a meal of vertebrate blood to develop their eggs. Blood requires a cold chain for shipping and storage, has a short shelf life, and handling requires trained personnel. To address this problem, we have developed an artificial blood meal replacement called SkitoSnack that does not require cooling and has a much longer shelf life than blood. For this study we raised a colony of Yellow fever mosquitoes for 30 consecutive generations on SkitoSnack to test if long-term SkitoSnack culture affected mosquito fitness and life history traits. We found that 30th generation SkitoSnack-raised mosquitoes had equivalent egg numbers and hatch rates compared to blood-raised control mosquitoes and equal fitness. We found similar results for a closely related species, the Asian tiger mosquito, which we raised for 11 generations on SkitoSnack. We also found that SkitoSnack is not suitable to raise bed bugs. Together, our results show that SkitoSnack is a suitable meal for mass culture of yellow fever mosquitoes and Asian tiger mosquitoes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]