Relative abundance and blood feeding behavior of nocturnally active culicine mosquitoes in western Kenya

Abstract

At 2 sites in western Kenya targeted for future malaria vaccine trials, adult culicine mosquitoes were sampled over one year by 5 collection techniques to assess human exposure to potential vectors of pathogens other than malaria. Collections included 20,910 females representing 19 species in Kisian and 4,312 females of 11 species in Saradidi. Common species in Kisian included Culex quinquefasciatus (71.4%), Mansonia uniformis (15.8%), Ma. africana (6.2%), Aedes mcintoshi (2.0%), Coquillettidia fuscopennata (1.9%) and Ae. ochraceus (1.8%). Common species in Saradidi included Cx. quinquefasciatus (92.7%), Cx. nebulosus (4.5%) and Ma. uniformis (1.0%). Human-bait collections identified 16 man-biting culicine species in Kisian and 9 in Saradidi. Man-biting rates at Kisian for the 5 most common species were 1.8, 14.6 and 13.5 times higher than at Saradidi for indoor, outdoor and tent collections, respectively. Exposure indoors was estimated to be 1,277 bites/man/year at Kisian and 720 at Saradidi. Blood meal identification for 1,083 mosquitoes confirmed that the common culicine species feed primarily on humans and cows.