The investigation of the production of medicinal leech hirudo verbana fed with bovine and chicken blood under laboratory conditions

Medicinal leeches have been gradually begun to take more places in human life. Leeches have become very important in both traditional and complementary medicine, in the pharmaceutical sector and in the cosmetic industry. The aim of this study was to investigate the production of the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana, fed with bovine and chicken blood, under laboratory conditions. The study was carried out between May 2018 and August 2019 in Fırat University Fisheries Faculty for 18 months. Heparinized and homogenized chicken and bovine blood were used for feeding leeches. Heparinized blood was given to leeches by making blood sausage and homogenized blood was given by the sieve method. It has been tried to determine the breeding and rearing performances by giving two different animal blood to medicinal leeches with two different methods. The pregnancy status of medical leeches after feeding was checked and after leaving cocoon it was monitored weekly. While the number of cocoons obtained from the medicinal leeches fed by homogenized bovine blood with sieve method was 14, the number of juvenile H. verbana was 221 in total, the average number of juvenile leeches per cocoon was determined as 15.07 ± 6.06 (7-25). While the number of cocoon obtained from the leeches fed with homogenized chicken blood was 14, the number of baby leeches H. verban was 177, the average number of leeches per cocoon was 12.64 ± 6.12 (0-24). While the number of cocoons obtained from medicinal leeches fed by heparinized bovine blood with blood sausage method was 46, the number of juvenile H. verbana was 370, the average number of juvenile leeches per cocoon was 8.04 ± 5.86 (0-21). While the number of cocoons obtained from leeches fed by heparinized chicken blood with blood sausage method was 20, the number of juvenile H. verbana was 270 in total, the average number of juvenile leeches per cocoon was 13.50 ± 4.64 (5-24). Keywords: Medicinal Leech, Hirudo verbana, Bovine blood, Chicken blood, Reproduction, Culture, Breading