Using a miniaturized double-net trap (DN-Mini) to assess relationships between indoor–outdoor biting preferences and physiological ages of two malaria vectors, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus
Tags:
Reference:
Malaria Journal 2019 18:282, 22 August 2019
Effective malaria surveillance requires detailed assessments of mosquitoes biting indoors, where interventions such as insecticide-treated nets work best, and outdoors, where other interventions may be required. Such assessments often involve volunteers exposing their legs to attract mosquitoes [i.e., human landing catches (HLC)], a procedure with significant safety and ethical concerns. Here, an exposure-free, miniaturized, double-net trap (DN-Mini) is used to assess relationships between indoor–outdoor biting preferences of malaria vectors, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus, and their physiological ages (approximated by parity and insemination states).
Medical Condition:
The high genetic diversity among populations from Senegal River basin coupled with no evidence of bottleneck and with a gene flow with southern population suggests that the re-colonization was likely carried out by a massive and repeated stepping-stone dispersion starting from the neighboring areas where An. funestus endured.
These findings and the greater tolerance of females to thermal extremes may have significant implications for future malaria transmission, especially in areas of current seasonal transmission and in areas on the boundaries of current vector distribution.
The possible effect of moonlight on the biting behaviour of mosquitoes in southern Mozambique, in particular that of Anopheles funestus (Diptera: Culicidae), a primary vector of malaria, was investigated by comparing catches indoors and outdoors using CDC light traps and ‘Furvela’ tent traps, respectively, for 35 consecutive nights, from 9 September to 15 October 2008.
The distribution of the RdlR mutation in An. funestus populations in Africa suggests extensive barriers to gene flow between populations from different regions.
The insecticide resistance status and role in malaria transmission of Anopheles funestus was evaluated at the Maragra Sugar Estate in southern Mozambique where an IRS vector control programme has been in operation for seven years using the carbamate insecticide bendiocarb.
We developed a pipeline that makes de novo transcriptome sequencing possible in virtually any organism at a very reasonable cost ($6,300 in sequencing costs in our case).