DNA profiling of human blood in anophelines from lowland and highland sites in western Kenya

Abstract

We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based DNA profiling to determine the person from whom Anopheles funestus and An. gambiae collected in natural human habitations obtained their blood meals. Less than 20% of human hosts contributed to > 50% of all blood meals, and 42% were not bitten at all, including people in the age group bitten most often. As expected, bites were unevenly distributed by age (young adults > older adults > children). Use of untreated bed nets by adults, but not children, seemed to redirect bites to children. Multiple blood meals in a single gonotrophic cycle occurred frequently enough to be epidemiologically important (14% for An. funestus and 11% for An. gambiae). Mosquitoes that did not bite a person who slept in the collection house can affect estimation of entomological risk. Mosquito-human interactions did not differ across ecologically and epidemiologically distinct highland and lowland sites. Copyright © 2006 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.