Bites before and after bedtime can carry a high risk of human malaria infection

Malaria Journal

Research

Nicodem J. Govella¹  Masabho P. Milali²  Maggy T. Sikulu-Lord³ 

[1] Ifakara Health Institute, Environmental Health and Ecological Sciences Thematic Group, Coordination Office, PO Box 78373, Kiko Avenue, Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania;Ifakara Health Institute, Environmental Health and Ecological Sciences Thematic Group, Coordination Office, PO Box 78373, Kiko Avenue, Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania;Marquette University, Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Sciences, Milwaukee, WI, USA;Ifakara Health Institute, Environmental Health and Ecological Sciences Thematic Group, Coordination Office, PO Box 78373, Kiko Avenue, Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania;QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, 4006, Herston, QLD, Australia;

关键词: Malaria;    Mosquito;    Parity;    Biting time;    Transmission;    Mosquito age;    Distribution;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12936-017-1740-0

 received in 2016-09-15, accepted in 2017-02-20,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundUnderstanding biting distribution of potentially infectious (parous) mosquitoes at various hours of the night would be useful in establishing the likely impact of bed nets on malaria transmission. Bed nets are highly effective at preventing biting by older malaria vectors, which occurs when most people are in bed. However, this behaviour is likely to vary across ecological settings and among mosquito populations.MethodsField experiments were conducted in Minepa village within Kilombero Valley. Two outdoor catching stations located approximately 50 m from each other were established for mosquito collection. On each experimental night, mosquitoes were collected using human landing catch (HLC) by a single adult male at each station from 18:00 to 07:00 h. To compare the distribution of mosquito biting and the composition of their age structure, mosquitoes were sorted and recorded according to the hour they were collected. A sub-sample of Anopheles arabiensis was dissected to determine their parity status. Insectary-reared An. arabiensis within the semi-field system (SFS) with known age were also released in the SFS (10 m × 20 m) and recaptured hourly using HLC to determine the effect of parity on biting distribution.ResultsOverall, there was no statistical association between the parity status and the biting time of An. arabiensis either in the field or in the SFS (P ≥ 0.05). The wild and insectary-reared An. arabiensis were observed to exhibit different hourly biting patterns.ConclusionThe study has shown that mosquito biting time phenotype is not influenced by their parity status. These findings imply that the risk of human exposure to potentially infectious bites is equally distributed throughout the night, thus supplementary measures to protect people against bites in evening and morning are desirable.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2017