Seasonal abundance, blood meal sources and insecticide susceptibility in major anopheline malaria vectors from southern Mauritania

Abstract

Background: Malaria is endemic in the southernmost Sahelian zone of Mauritania where the major known mosquito vector is Anopheles arabiensis. Understanding seasonal population dynamics, feeding preferences and insecticide resistance status of these vectors in the area is essential to improve vector control measures implemented at a local scale. Here, malaria vector populationsbionomics is described in two sentinel sites located in the Sahelian zone of Mauritania. Methods: Between September 2014 and December 2016, longitudinal entomological surveys were conducted in Kobeni (1549'N, 0924'W) and Rosso (1630'N; 1548'W), two localities in the southern Sahelian zone of Mauritania. Adult mosquitoes were collected using indoor pyrethrum spray catch (PSC). Morphological and PCR-based methods were used to identify the species, detect Plasmodium parasites and analyze blood meals in individual mosquitoes. WHO insecticide susceptibility tests were performed with malathion (5%), bendiocarb (0.1%), permethrin (0.75%) d deltamethrin (0.05%) using female An. gambiae (s.l.) reared from larval and pupal collections from natural breeding sites. (Continued on next page).