Abstract

Outdoor biting by anopheline mosquitoes is one of the contributors to residual malaria transmission, but the profile of vectors driving this phenomenon is not well understood. Here, we studied the bionomics and genetically characterized populations of An. gambiae and An. funestus complexes trapped outdoors in three selected dryland areas including Kerio Valley, Nguruman and Rabai in Kenya. We observed a higher abundance of Anopheles funestus group members (n = 639, 90.6%) compared to those of the An. gambiae complex (n = 66, 9.4%) with An. longipalpis C as the dominant vector species with a Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite rate (Pfsp) of 5.2% (19/362). The known malaria vectors including An. funestus s.s. (8.7%, 2/23), An. gambiae (14.3%, 2/14), An. rivulorum (14.1%, 9/64), An. arabiensis (1.9%, 1/52) occurred in low densities and displayed high Pfsp rates, which varied with the site. Additionally, six cryptic species found associated with the An. funestus group harbored Pf sporozoites (cumulative Pfsp rate = 7.2%, 13/181). We detected low frequency of resistant 119F-GSTe2 alleles in An. funestus s.s. (15.6%) and An. longipalpis C (3.1%) in Kerio Valley only. Evidence of outdoor activity, emergence of novel and divergent vectors and detection of mutations conferring metabolic resistance to pyrethroid/DDT could contribute to residual malaria transmission posing a threat to effective malaria control.

Details

Title
Outdoor malaria vector species profile in dryland ecosystems of Kenya
Author
Kinya Fiona 1 ; Mutero, Clifford M 2 ; Sang, Rosemary 3 ; Owino, Eunice A 4 ; Rotich Gilbert 3 ; Ogola, Edwin O 3 ; Wondji, Charles S 5 ; Torto Baldwyn 6 ; Tchouassi, David P 3 

 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya (GRID:grid.419326.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1794 5158); University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya (GRID:grid.10604.33) (ISNI:0000 0001 2019 0495) 
 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya (GRID:grid.419326.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1794 5158); University of Pretoria, School of Health Systems and Public Health, Pretoria, South Africa (GRID:grid.49697.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2107 2298) 
 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya (GRID:grid.419326.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1794 5158) 
 University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya (GRID:grid.10604.33) (ISNI:0000 0001 2019 0495) 
 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool, UK (GRID:grid.48004.38) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9764); LSTM Research Unit at the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases (CRID), Yaoundé, Cameroon (GRID:grid.48004.38) 
 International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya (GRID:grid.419326.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1794 5158); University of Pretoria, Department of Zoology and Entomology, Pretoria, South Africa (GRID:grid.49697.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 2107 2298) 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2658984788
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.