kissing bug

Zoos to Use Blood Sucking Bugs as Syringes

bleimanb | June 16, 2008

A pilot program has been launched in England to take blood samples from animals in zoos not with plastic syringes but with live, bloodsucking insects known as a kissing bugs. You may feel a slight pinch... As many of our zoo keeper readers can tell you, taking blood samples from animals in zoos can be a very stressful and complicated undertaking, often involving sedating the captive creatures. Through the new program first reported by the BBC and being tested now at the London and Whipsnade zoos, the keepers are... ...using kissing bugs to do their work for them. The kissing bugs are raised…

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