The influence of feeding behaviour and temperature on the capacity of mosquitoes to transmit malaria

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Insecticide-treated bed nets reduce malaria transmission by limiting contact between mosquito vectors and human hosts when mosquitoes feed during the night. However, malaria vectors can also feed in the early evening and in the morning when people are not protected. Here, we explored how timing of blood feeding interacts with environmental temperature to influence the capacity of <jats:italic>Anopheles</jats:italic> mosquitoes to transmit the human malaria parasite, <jats:italic>Plasmodium falciparum</jats:italic>. We found no effect of biting time itself on the proportion of mosquitoes that became infectious (vector competence) at constant temperature. However, when mosquitoes were maintained under more realistic fluctuating temperatures there was a significant increase in competence for mosquitoes feeding in the evening, and a significant reduction in competence for those feeding in the morning, relative to those feeding at midnight. These effects appear to be due to thermal sensitivity of malaria parasites during the initial stages of parasite development within the mosquito, and the fact that mosquitoes feeding in the evening experience cooling temperatures during the night, whereas mosquitoes feeding in the morning quickly experience warming temperatures that are inhibitory to parasite establishment. A transmission dynamics model illustrates that such differences in competence could have important implications for disease endemicity, the extent of transmission that persists in the presence of bed nets, and the epidemiological impact of behavioural resistance. These results indicate the interaction of temperature and feeding behaviour to be a major ecological determinant of the vectorial capacity of malaria mosquitoes.</jats:p>

Threats to the effectiveness of insecticide-treated bednets for malaria control: thinking beyond insecticide resistance

“…Such new tools might be especially important in situations where behavioural resistance has evolved, wherein mosquito populations exhibit a shift in biting or resting behaviour thereby reducing their exposure to indoor interventions such as ITNs and indoor residual spraying. [60][61][62]…”

The influence of feeding behaviour and temperature on the capacity of mosquitoes to transmit malaria

“… Data availability The raw data that support the findings of this study are available in Dryad with the identifier: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b2rbnzsb5 (ref. 93 ) …”

Demography, education, and research trends in the interdisciplinary field of disease ecology

“…Likewise, although we also observed significant temporal fluctuations in publications related to malaria, their frequency has remained remarkably constant since the late 1990s. This likely reflects ongoing and continued efforts to reduce public health burdens of this disease and to understand complex interactions between mosquito vectors, human hosts, and the environment (Suh et al 2020), especially in the context of emerging human pathogens (e.g., Plasmodium knowlesi) (Lee et al 2011). We also identified broader concept-based trends in disease ecology literature.…”