title: Spatio-temporal analysis of host preferences and feeding patterns of malaria vectors in the sylvo-pastoral area of Senegal: impact of landscape classes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The study of vector feeding behaviour is an important step in the understanding of the epidemiology of vector borne diseases. The main objective of this work was to study the spatio-temporal host preferences and blood-feeding patterns of malaria vectors in a pastoral area of Senegal where cattle breeding is the main human activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Malaria vectors were collected indoors by pyrethrum spray catch in 16 villages belonging to 4 different landscape classes (wooded savanna, shrubby savanna, bare soils and steppe). Blood meals sources were determined using a direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The blood meal origins of 1886 freshly fed An. gambiae s.l. were determined. Among these blood meals, most were taken on a single host: 40.1% on human and 37.1% on animal. The range in proportions of blood meals taken from human were 25-62.4% in wooded savanna villages, 23.5-61.9% in shrubby savanna villages, 31.3-70% in bare soils villages and 57.7-68.7 in steppe villages. Blood meals taken from bovines were very heterogeneous with two clusters localized in the Northeast and Southwest axis of the study area that corresponds to the distribution of the main water ponds. Patent mixed blood meals taken from human and non-human were significantly higher than those taken from two animals, the highest proportions being observed in September (shrubby savanna, bare soils and steppe villages) or October (wooded savanna villages).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These observations suggest that in this pastoral area, differences in feeding patterns of malaria vectors are merely linked to the specific localization of villages and are not influenced by landscape class distribution. In addition, the temporal variations in the anthropophilic rates are influenced by the presence of standing water in the study area.
authors.affiliation: Unité d'Entomologie Médicale, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, 36 Avenue Pasteur, Dakar, BP 220, Sénégal. dia@pasteur.sn.
authors.forename: El Hadji Malick
authors.initials: el HM
authors.lastname: Ngom
authors.forename: Jacques-André
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ndione
authors.forename: Yamar
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ba
authors.forename: Lassana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Konaté
authors.forename: Ousmane
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Faye
authors.forename: Mawlouth
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diallo
authors.forename: Ibrahima
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000502:physiology*; D001769:Blood; D004199:Disease Vectors; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D012675:Senegal; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis