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

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2006 Aug;75(2):231-7.

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.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Animals
  • Anopheles / classification
  • Anopheles / physiology*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • DNA / blood
  • DNA / genetics
  • DNA / metabolism*
  • DNA Fingerprinting* / methods
  • Digestion / physiology
  • Environment*
  • Feeding Behavior / physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Kenya
  • Male
  • Microsatellite Repeats / genetics
  • Middle Aged
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • DNA