Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Oct 15:5:233.
doi: 10.1186/1756-3305-5-233.

The ecology of mosquitoes in an irrigated vegetable farm in Kumasi, Ghana: abundance, productivity and survivorship

Yaw A Afrane  1 , Bernard W Lawson, Ruth Brenya, Thomas Kruppa, Guiyun Yan
Affiliations

The ecology of mosquitoes in an irrigated vegetable farm in Kumasi, Ghana: abundance, productivity and survivorship

Yaw A Afrane et al. Parasit Vectors. .

Abstract

Background: Irrigated vegetable farms within the city of Kumasi, Ghana, create hotspots for the breeding of malaria vectors, which could lead to high transmission of malaria. This study investigated the abundance and productivity of mosquitoes in an irrigated vegetable farm in Kumasi, Ghana.

Methods: Adult mosquito productivity was estimated five days in a week in different irrigated scheme types (dug-out wells, furrows and footprints) for 12 weeks using emergence traps. Larval sampling was done five days a week to estimate the abundance of larvae from the different irrigated schemes types.

Results: Mosquito breeding in the irrigated vegetable field was confined to dug-out wells, furrows and human footprints. Mosquito productivity (m2/week) was highest in the dugout wells followed by the human footprints and the least was in the furrows (11.23, 5.07 and 4.34 An. gambiae/m2/week). Larval abundance for the late instars (3rd, 4th and pupae) also followed the same trend, with the dug-out wells having the highest larval abundance followed by the human footprints and then the furrows (13.24, 6.81, 5.87 larvae/week). Mosquito productivity and abundance was negatively correlated with rainfall (R2 = 0.209; P< 0.01).

Conclusion: This study showed that adult and larval mosquito abundance and larval survival were high in the irrigated fields in the irrigated vegetable farm. This therefore, contributed significantly to adult mosquito populations and hence malaria transmission in the city.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Productivity of adult An. gambiae in three different breeding habitats in vegetable farms in Gyinyase, Kumasi, Ghana.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Abundance of immature forms of An. gambiae in different breeding habitats: (A) Early instars (1st and 2nd instars); (B) Late instars (3rd and 4th instars) and pupae.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Trape JF. Malaria and urbanization in central Africa: the example of Brazzaville. Part I: Description of the town and review of previous surveys. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1987;2:1–9. - PubMed
    1. Coene J. Malaria in urban and rural Kinshasa: the entomological input. Med Vet Entomol. 1993;7:127–137. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.1993.tb00665.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Trape JF, Zoulani A. Malaria and urbanization in central Africa: the example of Brazzaville. Part III: Relationships between urbanization and the intensity of malaria transmission. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1987;81(2):19–25. - PubMed
    1. Afrane YA, Klinkenberg E, Drechsel P, Owusu-Daaku K, Garms R, Kruppa T. Does irrigated urban agriculture influence the transmission of malaria in the city of Kumasi, Ghana? Acta Trop. 2004;89:125–134. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2003.06.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cofie OO, Drechsel P, Amoah P, Danso G, Gyiele L. Improving rural–urban nutrient flows through urban and pen-urban agriculture. In: Rural–Urban Encounters: Managing the Environment of the Peri-urban Interface. London: DPU internationalConference Pape; 2001.

Publication types