DNA profiling of human blood in anophelines from lowland and highland sites in western Kenya.
We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based DNA profiling to determine the person from whom Anopheles funestus and An. gambiae collected in natural human habitations obtained their blood meals. Less than 20% of human hosts contributed to > 50% of all blood meals, and 42% were not bitten at all, including people in the age group bitten most often. As expected, bites were unevenly distributed by age (young adults > older adults > children). Use of untreated bed nets by adults, but not children, seemed to redirect bites to children. Multiple blood meals in a single gonotrophic cycle occurred frequently enough to be epidemiologically important (14% for An. funestus and 11% for An. gambiae). Mosquitoes that did not bite a person who slept in the collection house can affect estimation of entomological risk. Mosquito-human interactions did not differ across ecologically and epidemiologically distinct highland and lowland sites.
Scott
Thomas W
TW
Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, 95616, USA. twscott@ucdavis.edu
Githeko
Andrew K
AK
Fleisher
Andrew
A
Harrington
Laura C
LC
Yan
Guiyun
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004247:DNA / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods; D004063:Digestion / Q000502:physiology; D004777:Environment; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007630:Kenya; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors
D004247:DNA