title: Evaluation of a species-specific PCR assay for the Anopheles funestus group from eleven African countries and Madagascar.
abstract: A newly published cocktail polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay can identify five members of the Anopheles funestus group: An. funestus, An. vaneedeni, An. parensis, An. leesoni and An. rivulorum. The assay was evaluated on specimens from 11 African countries: Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia; and the island of Madagascar. The polymerase chain reaction single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) and the internal transcribed spacer PCR (ITS2-PCR) assays were used as a priori identification methods on 900 specimens. Of these, 96.4% were correctly identified using the new cocktail PCR method. The remaining 3.5% (32) from Malawi failed to amplify. The failure to identify these samples was not significantly different from the samples from the other countries (Chi-square; P > 0.05). The results suggest that the new species-specific PCR assay is an efficient and effective means of identifying 5 members of the An. funestus group in a single reaction. It is also less time-consuming than the molecular methods previously used on the group.
authors.affiliation: Vector Control Reference Unit, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, School of Pathology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa. manti.weeto@nhls.ac.za
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Weeto
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Koekemoer
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kamau
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coetzee
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000145:classification*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008270:Madagascar; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational
chemical_list: D004247:DNA