Field study site selection, species abundance and monthly distribution of anopheline mosquitoes in the northern Kruger National Park, South Africa

Malaria Journal

Research

Basil D Brooke¹  Givemore Munhenga¹  Lizette L Koekemoer¹  Leyya Essop¹  Belinda Spillings¹  Richard H Hunt¹  Danny Govender²  Stephen Midzi³  Leo Braack⁴ 

[1] Centre for Opportunistic, Tropical and Hospital Infections, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Private Bag X4, Sandringham, 2131, Johannesburg, South Africa;Wits Research Institute for Malaria, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;Scientific Services, South African National Parks, Private Bag X402, 1350, Skukuza, South Africa;Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X04, 0110, Onderstepoort, South Africa;Shangoni Section, Kruger National Park, Private Bag X402, 1350, Skukuza, South Africa;Zoonoses Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, 0007, Pretoria, South Africa;

关键词: Anopheles arabiensis;    Malaria vector control;    Sterile insect technique;    Kruger National Park;    South Africa;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-13-27

 received in 2013-10-02, accepted in 2014-01-08,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundKnowledge of the ecology and behaviour of a target species is a prerequisite for the successful development of any vector control strategy. Before the implementation of any strategy it is essential to have comprehensive information on the bionomics of species in the targeted area. The aims of this study were to conduct regular entomological surveillance and to determine the relative abundance of anopheline species in the northern Kruger National Park. In addition to this, the impact of weather conditions on an Anopheles arabiensis population were evaluated and a range of mosquito collection methods were assessed.MethodsA survey of Anopheles species was made between July 2010 and December 2012. Mosquitoes were collected from five sites in the northern Kruger National Park, using carbon dioxide-baited traps, human landing and larval collections. Specimens were identified morphologically and polymerase chain reaction assays were subsequently used where appropriate.ResultsA total of 3,311 specimens belonging to nine different taxa was collected. Species collected were: Anopheles arabiensis (n = 1,352), Anopheles quadriannulatus (n = 870), Anopheles coustani (n = 395), Anopheles merus (n = 349), Anopheles pretoriensis (n = 35), Anopheles maculipalpis (n = 28), Anopheles rivulorum (n = 19), Anopheles squamosus ( n = 3) and Anopheles rufipes (n = 2). Members of the Anopheles gambiae species complex were the most abundant and widely distributed, occurring across all collection sites. The highest number of mosquitoes was collected using CO2 baited net traps (58.2%) followed by human landing catches (24.8%). Larval collections (17%) provided an additional method to increase sample size. Mosquito sampling productivity was influenced by prevailing weather conditions and overall population densities fluctuated with seasons.ConclusionSeveral anopheline species occur in the northern Kruger National Park and their densities fluctuate between seasons. Species abundance and relative proportions within the An. gambiae complex varied between collection methods. There is a perennial presence of an isolated population of An. arabiensis at the Malahlapanga site which declined in density during the dry winter months, making this site suitable for a small pilot study site for Sterile Insect Technique as a malaria vector control strategy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Munhenga et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.