A blood-sucking insect has been pressed into service to monitor the pregnancy of an Asian elephant in Dublin Zoo. The bug gets a free lunch while the elephant's handlers will know for sure when she goes into labour.
The zoo is helping to pioneer the novel use of the biting triatomid bug in animal pregnancies after learning of its use as a "living needle" at the Wuppertal Zoo in Germany, explained Dublin Zoo director Leo Oosterweghel.
The Germans have used the bug to extract clean blood samples from a wide range of species.
It may sound a bit gruesome but there are considerable advantages to the technique, says Mr Oosterweghel.
The animals cannot feel the bite and are not stressed during the procedure, which removes the need for anaesthesia. Researchers then use a needle to extract the blood sample without killing the helpful bug.
The approach seemed ideal for use with Yasmin, Dublin Zoo's Asian elephant which arrived from Rotterdam Zoo more than a year ago, Mr Oosterweghel said.
She is now near the end of a 22-month pregnancy and handlers need blood samples to monitor her hormone levels, a difficult and stressful task if using a conventional needle.
This is where the triatomid bug comes in. It is let loose on Yasmin's skin, gorges on blood for 10 or 15 minutes and then falls off to be collected by the handlers, said Mr Oosterweghel.
The bugs have successfully collected several samples and the handlers were confident the technique will alert them when Yasmin goes into labour.
The bugs can be applied "free range" by letting them alight on the animal or by introducing them in a small gauze-covered "pot".
In free-range application, a thread is sometimes attached so that when the engorged bug drops off it can easily be found.
The need to avoid escapees stems from the fact the North American triatomid bug, collected on the Baja peninsula in Mexico, has a notorious southern cousin. Known as the "kissing bug" because it bites the lips of sleeping people, it spreads the potentially fatal Chagas disease, endemic in South and Central America where up to 24 million people are infected.