Resumen

LONGA, Ana  y  SCORZA, José V. Migration of Rhodnius robustus (Hemiptera: Triatominae) from Acrocomia aculeata (Palmae) to rural dwellings in Venezuela. Bol Mal Salud Amb [online]. 2007, vol.47, n.2, pp.213-220. ISSN 1690-4648.

In Sucre municipality, Trujillo State, Venezuela, in the Zaragoza settlement, surrounded by Acrocomia aculeata palmetum, where R. robustus infected with Trypanosoma cruzi had been found, the possible domiciliary invasion of R. robustus was investigated. School children were trained in knowledge and identification of vector insects, providing each family group dispositives for collection, besides box-traps, as those designed by Gomez-Nuñez (1965), in each domicile. In a ten weeks period, through an active finding by schoolchildren (domiciliary sentinels) were captured 42 adult specimens of R. robustus in 24 out of the 62 houses surrounded by 76 palm trees of A. aculeata less than 500 m from the houses. From these 42 imagos of R. robustus, 16 (38.0%) were infected with T. cruzi, which gives an average of 0.81 imagos per house. On the other hand in the same period in 19 domiciles in a similar area, but with only two palm trees surrounding a single house, adults of R. robustus were not found. When comparing the efectivity of these two detection methods through the collection by the domiciliary sentinels or pasive finding and the box-traps collection or active findings, we verified more sensibility in the finding insect vectors by the domiciliary sentinels (38.7%) than with the box-traps (3.2%).

Palabras clave : Comunitary participation; Chagas disease; Rhodnius robustus; Trypanosoma cruzi.