Occurrence and host preferences of Anopheles maculipennis group mosquitoes in England and Wales

Abstract

Mosquitoes of the Anopheles maculipennis Meigen (Diptera: Culicidae) group are of public health concern: five of the 11 morphologically indistinct species have been historically considered as vectors of malaria in Europe. Three members of the An. maculipennis group have been reported in the U.K.: Anopheles atroparvus van Thiel; Anopheles messeae Falleroni, and Anopheles daciae Linton, Nicolescu & Harbach. To study the distribution of the three U.K. species, particularly that of An. daciae, we developed a polymerase chain reaction-Restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay using the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2) gene. Anopheles daciae was found to be widespread, occurring in four of the five counties surveyed in southern England and on the Welsh island of Anglesey, often in sympatry with the closely related species An. messeae. The host preferences of 237 blood-fed females were determined using either direct sequencing or PCR-based fragment analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase b gene with DNA from females' abdomens. All three species were found to be opportunistic, having fed on at least three different hosts. Seventeen individuals contained multiple bloodmeals, including two An. daciae that had fed on humans and birds. Our results show that An. daciae is widespread in England and Wales, occurs in sympatry with other members of the An. maculipennis group, and feeds on humans, which suggests it is a potential vector of disease in the U.K.

Blood-feeding patterns of native mosquitoes and insights into their potential role as pathogen vectors in the Thames estuary region of the United Kingdom

“…delineated to species level showed An. daciae/messeae fed on both birds and mammals, in agreement with a previous UK study [9]. However, An.…”

Identification of blood meals in field captured sand flies by a PCR-RFLP approach based on cytochrome b gene

“…Amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and subsequent sequencingis widely used to study bloodmeal preferences in sand flies and other vectors as mosquitoes or ticks (Kirstein and Grey 1996, Oshagi et al 2006, Danabalan et al 2014.Thus, different molecular targets like cytochrome b (cytb), cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and prepronociceptin (PNOC) are being used to detect the origin of blood meals (Kocher et al 1989, Haoaus et al 2007, Abassi et al 2009). On the other hand, other techniques as PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)or PCRreverse-line blotting (RLB) have been developed in order to study blood meal preferences in mosquitoes, tsetse flies and sand flies (Osaghi et al 2006, Steuber et al 2005, Maleki-Ravasan et al 2009, Quaresma et al 2012, Soares et al 2014, Gebresilassie et al 2015.…”

First record of Anopheles daciae (Linton, Nicolescu & Harbach, 2004) in Poland

“…Differentiation to the closest resembling species to date, An. messeae , is limited to five single nucleotide substitutions in the ITS‐2 rDNA region (Nicolescu et al , Danabalan et al , Kronefeld et al ). Also Di Luca et al () confirmed the intraspecific polymorphism in populations of An.…”

“…A rapid PCR‐RFLP assay (Danabalan et al ) and DNA sequencing were applied to differentiate the sibling species composition with special consideration to An. daciae .…”

“…messeae , and An. atroparvus (Danabalan et al ). In parallel with the PCR‐RFLP assay, amplicons of the ITS‐2 from all samples were sequenced by Eurofins Medigenomix GmbH (Germany) in order to ensure the diagnostic value of the PCR‐RFLP assay for An.…”