Evaluation of the effect of horse blood supplemented with human blood and vitamin on the performance of Glossina morsitans morsitans colony

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of horse blood supplemented with human blood and vitamin on the performance of Glossina morsitans morsitans colony. Three feeding groups were established and a total of 144 female G. m. morsitans flies were assigned to each group. The first group was entirely maintained on defibrinated horse blood, while the second and third groups fed horse blood with one feed per week on human blood and vitamin supplement respectively. The result of the study showed no difference in mortality between the flies fed human blood and vitamin supplement (p = 0.807) but vitamin supplement (p = 0.002) and human blood supplement (p = 0.006) produced significantly greater mortalities than the horse blood. The flies fed horse blood performed better than human blood supplement and vitamin supplement in terms of female survival (p=0.002), pupal weight (p< 0.001) and emergence (p = 0.029). Abortion was low throughout and not significantly different (p = 0.548) between the three feeding groups. Similarly no difference was found in pupae production between the flies fed horse blood and human blood supplement but both of these produced significantly more pupae than vitamin supplement (p = 0.002). The flies fed human blood supplement produced large numbers of pupae but of lighter weight and with low emergence. The emergence of the flies from the pupae produced by the flies fed horse blood, vitamin supplement and human blood were 97.2%, 91.1% and 90.1% respectively. According to the study, horse blood was the best diet of the three and recommended for colony feeding while human blood supplement is nutritionally poor. On the other hand, vitamin supplement did not improve the nutritional quality of horse blood, but on balance deteriorated the nutritional quality of the meal.

Keywords: Colony performance, Feeding regime, Glossina morsitans morsitan, Horse blood, Human blood supplement, Vitamin supplement