Beer consumption increases human attractiveness to malaria mosquitoes.
BACKGROUND
Malaria and alcohol consumption both represent major public health problems. Alcohol consumption is rising in developing countries and, as efforts to manage malaria are expanded, understanding the links between malaria and alcohol consumption becomes crucial. Our aim was to ascertain the effect of beer consumption on human attractiveness to malaria mosquitoes in semi field conditions in Burkina Faso.


RESULTS
We used a Y tube-olfactometer designed to take advantage of the whole body odour (breath and skin emanations) as a stimulus to gauge human attractiveness to Anopheles gambiae (the primary African malaria vector) before and after volunteers consumed either beer (n = 25 volunteers and a total of 2500 mosquitoes tested) or water (n = 18 volunteers and a total of 1800 mosquitoes). Water consumption had no effect on human attractiveness to An. gambiae mosquitoes, but beer consumption increased volunteer attractiveness. Body odours of volunteers who consumed beer increased mosquito activation (proportion of mosquitoes engaging in take-off and up-wind flight) and orientation (proportion of mosquitoes flying towards volunteers' odours). The level of exhaled carbon dioxide and body temperature had no effect on human attractiveness to mosquitoes. Despite individual volunteer variation, beer consumption consistently increased attractiveness to mosquitoes.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that beer consumption is a risk factor for malaria and needs to be integrated into public health policies for the design of control measures.
Lefèvre
Thierry
T
Génétique et Evolution des Maladies Infectieuses, UMR CNRS/IRD 2724, Montpellier, France. telefev@emory.edu
Gouagna
Louis-Clément
LC
Dabiré
Kounbobr Roch
KR
Elguero
Eric
E
Fontenille
Didier
D
Renaud
François
F
Costantini
Carlo
C
Thomas
Frédéric
F
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D001515:Beer; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D001681:Biological Assay; D001831:Body Temperature; D002050:Burkina Faso; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D014867:Water
D014867:Water; D002245:Carbon Dioxide