Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) communities in contrasting areas from the Western regions of Burkina Faso: species diversity, abundance and implication in pathogen transmission

Abstract

Background: Mosquitoes (Diptera : Culicidae) are the arthropods that have the greatest negative impact on human health. The transformation of natural environments changing into urban and agricultural areas and population growing are phenomena that affect mosquito communities, thus influencing the risk of emerging or re-emerging vector-borne diseases. Here, we describe the diversity and abundance of adult mosquitoes in four environments with different anthropization levels (rural, urban, rice fields and forest) in a West African savannah zone. Methods: Mosquitoes were collected from two region (Hauts-Bassins and Sud-Ouest) of Burkina Faso during five periods between August 2019 and June 2021. Sampling sites were grouped according to anthropized environments. Mosquitoes were collected using BG sentinel traps and Prokopack aspirator. Analyses were performed using R software version 4.1.2. Logistic regression by generalized mixed linear models were used to test the effect of environment on mosquito abundance and diversity. Alpha diversity analysis was also performed using Vegan package. Results: A total of 10,625 adult mosquitoes were collected, belonging to 33 species, 5 genera: Culex, Aedes, Anopheles, Mansonia, and Ficalbia. The most dominant species were Cx. quinquefasciatus, An. gambiae s.l. and Ae. aegypti. Alpha diversity was similar across the regions. Habitat had a significant effect on mosquito species richness, Shannon index and Simpson index. The rural environment had the highest species richness (n = 28) followed by the forest environment (n= 24). The highest number (4,977/10,625) of mosquitoes was collected in urban environment. Conclusions: The composition of mosquito communities depended on the type of environment, with fewer species in highly anthropized environments such as urban and rice fields areas. Diversity and abundance of mosquito vectors could expose human populations from each environment to a potential risk of mosquito-borne diseases.