title: The relevance and applicability of oocyst prevalence as a read-out for mosquito feeding assays.
abstract: Mosquito feeding assays are important in evaluations of malaria transmission-reducing interventions. The proportion of mosquitoes with midgut oocysts is commonly used as an outcome measure, but in natural low intensity infections the effect of oocyst non-rupture on mosquito infectivity is unclear. By identifying ruptured as well as intact oocysts, we show that in low intensity P. falciparum infections i) 66.7-96.7% of infected mosquitoes experienced oocyst rupture between 11-21 days post-infection, ii) oocyst rupture led invariably to sporozoite release, iii) oocyst rupture led to salivary gland infections in 97.8% of mosquitoes, and iv) 1250 (IQR 313-2400) salivary gland sporozoites were found per ruptured oocyst. These data show that infectivity can be predicted with reasonable certainty from oocyst prevalence in low intensity infections. High throughput methods for detecting infection in whole mosquitoes showed that 18s PCR but not circumsporozoite ELISA gave a reliable approximation of mosquito infection rates on day 7 post-infection.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands [2].
authors.forename: Will J R
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eldering
authors.forename: Geert-Jan
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: van Gemert
authors.forename: Kjerstin H W
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lanke
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grignard
authors.forename: Marga G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: van de Vegte-Bolmer
authors.forename: Rianne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Siebelink-Stoter
authors.forename: Wouter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Graumans
authors.forename: Will F G
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Roeffen
authors.forename: Chris J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Drakeley
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Sauerwein
authors.forename: Teun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bousema
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology; D008288:Malaria / Q000469:parasitology; D033661:Oocysts / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum; D015995:Prevalence; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology; D034101:Sporozoites / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology*