Blood-feeding and its Epidemiological Significance

Formerly mosquito blood-meals were identified mostly by the interfacial precipitin (ring) test (described in Chapter 12), and it is sometimes still used (Alencar et al. 2005; Anderson and Gallaway 1988; Andrade and Lorosa 1998; Irby and Apperson 1988; la Grange and Coetzee 1997; Pates et al. 2001; Savage et al. 1993), as is the microcapillary precipitin test variant of Tempelis and Lofy (1963), which uses antisera produced in chickens (e.g. Christensen et al. 1996; Gad et al. 1995; Gomes et al. 2003). A variety of other techniques have been employed, including complement fixation, latex agglutination, and especially in China (Huang and Luo 1986; Shihai and Jun 1989; Wang 1986) and also India (Kumari et al. 1993) cellulose acetate or agar gel counter immunoelectrophoresis. More recently, antibody methods and DNA methods have become the preferred techniques for blood-meal identification.