Table 1.
Allocation of chickens and guinea pigs to different Triatoma infestans strains during the serial feeding experiment. Twelve chickens and 10 guinea pigs were each split into two groups of the same number of animals which were either exposed to a small number of bugs (five adult T. infestans; low exposure group) or a high number of bugs (five adults and 20 fourth and fifth instars; high exposure group) every 2 weeks for 24 weeks (chickens) or 20 weeks (guinea pigs). Four different strains of T. infestans, three Bolivian (Coch, Pasa, PaSo) and one Chilean strain (Chile), were used and the same strain was fed on the same animal throughout the experiment.
| Animal exposed to T. infestans | Strain of T. infestans used for feeding | Number of animals in the low exposure group | Number of animals in the high exposure group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | Coch | 1 | 1 |
| Pasa | 1 | 2 | |
| PaSo | 3 | 1 | |
| Chile | 1 | 2 | |
| Guinea pig | Coch | 1 | 1 |
| Pasa | 1 | 1 | |
| PaSo | 2 | 1 | |
| Chile | 1 | 2 |