title: The Anopheles community and the role of Anopheles minimus on malaria transmission on the China-Myanmar border.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Malaria around the China-Myanmar border is a serious health problem in the countries of South-East Asia. An. minimus is a principle malaria vector with a wide geographic distribution in this area. Malaria is endemic along the boundary between Yunnan province in China and the Kachin State of Myanmar where the local Anopheles community (species composition) and the malaria transmission vectors have never been clarified.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult Anopheles specimens were collected using CDC light traps in four villages along the border of China and Myanmar from May 2012 to April 2013. Morphological and molecular identification of mosquito adults confirmed the species of Anopheles. Blood-meal identification using the female abdomens was conducted using multiplex PCR. For sporozoite detection in An. minimus, sets of 10 female salivary glands were pooled and identified with SSU rDNA using nested PCR. Monthly abundance of An. minimus populations during the year was documented. The diversity of Anopheles and the role of An. minimus on malaria transmission in this border area were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  4,833 adult mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles were collected and morphologically identified to species or species complex. The Anopheles community is comprised of 13 species, and 78.83% of our total specimens belonged to An. minimus s.l., followed by An. maculatus (5.55%) and the An. culicifacies complex (4.03%). The quantity of trapped An. minimus in the rainy season of malaria transmission was greater than during the non-malarial dry season, and a peak was found in May 2012. An. minimus fed on the blood of four animals: humans (79.8%), cattle (10.6%), pigs (5.8%) and dogs (3.8%). 1,500 females of An. minimus were pooled into 150 samples and tested for sporozoites: only 1 pooled sample was found to have sporozoites of Plasmodium vivax.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anopheles is abundant with An. minimus being the dominant species and having a high human blood index along the China-Myanmar border. The sporozoites in An. minimus were determined to be Plasmodium vivax with a 0.07-0.7% infection rate.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology and Molecular Biology, College of Life Sciences, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, P,R, China. c_bin@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Guo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Guiyun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Naixin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Daibin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhengbo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Zhentian
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Wenbo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Feilong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D001769:Blood; D002417:Cattle; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004285:Dogs; D019353:Endemic Diseases; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract; D006801:Humans; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; D002052:Myanmar / Q000453:epidemiology; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013552:Swine
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