HEIGHTENED BIOLOGICAL PROPENSITY OF Aedes Albopictus IN SELECTED DENGUE OUTBREAK PRONE AREA, SELANGOR

Abstract

Dengue fever is a complex disease caused by bites of infected female Aedes mosquitoes. The existence of hot spot (HS) areas increases in tandem with the escalating rise of dengue cases reported each week. This study was carried out to compare the differences between biological characteristics of Aedes albopictus in HS and non-hot spot (NHS) areas. Ovitraps were set up in HS and NHS areas in selected areas in Selangor. Throughout this study, biological characteristics; namely duration of immature stages, gonotrophic cycle, fecundity and longevity were observed from field collected populations under laboratory-controlled conditions. Aedes albopictus from HS areas demonstrated shorter duration (six days) than NHS (10 days) in immature stages. Longevity wise, longer periods were observed in HS as compared to NHS, with 60 and 36 days of survival, respectively. Higher fecundity was generated by Ae. albopictus from HS with a mean of 2605 eggs as compared to NHS with only 1140. In addition, a significant difference is observed on the gonotrophic cycle between both areas. The findings of this study indicated that repeated chemical control applications might have affected all biological characteristics between HS and NHS areas.