Outdoor Resting and Sugar Feeding Behaviors of African Malaria Vectors

非洲疟疾病媒的户外休息和食糖行为

• 批准号: 8515715
• 负责人: John C. Beier
• 金额: $ 56.43万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-03-01 至 2018-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8515715
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Affect; Africa; African; Angiosperms; Anopheles Genus; Anopheles gambiae; Area; Automobile Driving; Awareness; Behavior; Biological; Blood; Characteristics; Climate; Complex; Country; Culicidae; Development; Distant; Ecology; Environment; Epidemiology; Exhibits; Falciparum Malaria; Feeding behaviors; Female; Fruit; Goals; Habitats; Housing; Investigation; Israel; Knowledge; Location; Longevity; Malaria; Mali; Microclimate; Modeling; Movement; Nutritional; Outcomes Research; Parasites; Pattern; Plants; Plasmodium falciparum; Population; Public Health; Research; Resources; Rest; Role; Seasons; Site; Solid; Source; Staging; Testing; Time; Weight; base; environmental change; evidence base; feeding; field study; improved; innovation; insight; killings; life history; neglect; novel strategies; physical property; predictive modeling; public health relevance; response; stem; success; sugar; tool; transmission process; vector; vector control

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project focuses on the outdoor resting and sugar-feeding behaviors of Anopheles malaria vector populations in Mali, West Africa, where, as in most African countries, malaria is a serious public health problem. An understanding of mosquito behaviors in the outdoor environment is becoming increasingly important because there is a growing awareness that vector control tools beyond those used exclusively inside houses are needed to achieve successful malaria control and local elimination. Currently, for the major malaria vector species in Africa, Anopheles gambiae, An. arabiensis, and An. funestus, there is only limited knowledge on their outdoor resting behavior, and the role of sugar or nectars in their life history is mostly speculated due to a lack of field-based evidence. Furthermore, resting and sugar feeding behaviors likely exhibit extensive phenotypic plasticity but the role of the ecological environment as the possible key driver has not been investigated. Therefore, the goal of this project is to investigate Anopheles mosquito outdoor resting and sugar- feeding behaviors at ecologically diverse sites in Mali to determine how complex relationships between these behaviors and the seasonally changing local environment affect malaria transmission. Field studies in Mali will be conducted at 10 study sites located in 3 major eco-climatic zones that span the sub-Saharan Sahel region. Study areas are already well characterized with respect to vector populations, seasonal Plasmodium falciparum transmission, and malaria epidemiology. This project, which builds on extensive preliminary studies in Mali and Israel, includes three specific aims: 1) Characterize how malaria vector species select from different types, configurations, and qualities of potential outdoor resting microhabitats and sugar-feeding centers, and behaviorally adapt to seasonal changes in their local environment~ 2) Determine how local environmental resources critical for malaria vector outdoor resting and sugar feeding affect malaria vectorial capacity and spatial aggregation patterns of malaria parasite transmission~ and 3) Develop and evaluate new approaches and field-based criteria to identify concentrations of adult anopheline mosquitoes in the outdoor environment. Innovative aspects include: First, new field-based approaches will be used to investigate two important but highly neglected mosquito behaviors, Second, this is the first study to examine how mosquitoes adapt their outdoor-resting and sugar-feeding behaviors in response to seasonal changes in their local environment. Third, this project will explain how outdoor-resting and sugar-feeding behaviors impact vector survival and malaria parasite transmission dynamics. Fourth, new predictive models for identifying concentrations of malaria vectors will be rigorously field-tested and refined to improve their accuracy and potential utility beyond Mali. By providing a strong scientific basis for development of new approaches and tools for anopheline mosquito vector control in outdoor environments, this project has strong potential for helping Mali and other countries improve malaria control and advance toward the ultimate goal of elimination.

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目重点关注西非马里按蚊疟疾病媒种群的户外休息和摄食行为，与大多数非洲国家一样，疟疾是该国的一个严重的公共卫生问题。了解室外环境中的蚊子行为变得越来越重要，因为人们越来越认识到，要成功控制和局部消除疟疾，除了专门在室内使用的媒介控制工具外，还需要其他媒介控制工具。目前，非洲的主要疟疾病媒物种是冈比亚按蚊（Anopheles gambiae）、按蚊（An. Anopheles gambiae）。阿拉伯，和 An. funestus，对其户外休息行为的了解非常有限，并且由于缺乏实地证据，糖或花蜜在其生活史中的作用大多是推测的。此外，休息和食糖行为可能表现出广泛的表型可塑性，但生态环境作为可能的关键驱动因素的作用尚未得到研究。因此，该项目的目标是调查马里生态多样化地点的按蚊户外休息和食糖行为，以确定这些行为与季节性变化的当地环境之间的复杂关系如何影响疟疾传播。马里的实地研究将在撒哈拉以南萨赫勒地区 3 个主要生态气候区的 10 个研究地点进行。研究区域在媒介种群、季节性恶性疟原虫传播和疟疾流行病学方面已经有了很好的特征。该项目以马里和以色列的广泛初步研究为基础，包括三个具体目标：1) 描述疟疾病媒物种如何从潜在的户外休息微生境和食糖中心的不同类型、结构和质量中进行选择，并在行为上适应当地环境的季节性变化~ 2) 确定对疟疾媒介户外休息和糖喂养至关重要的当地环境资源如何影响疟疾媒介能力和疟疾寄生虫传播的空间聚集模式~ 以及 3) 开发和评估新方法和基于实地的方法确定室外环境中成年按蚊浓度的标准。创新方面包括：首先，新的实地方法将用于调查两种重要但高度忽视的蚊子行为，其次，这是第一项研究蚊子如何适应其户外休息和食糖行为以应对季节变化的研究在他们当地的环境中。第三，该项目将解释户外休息和食糖行为如何影响病媒生存和疟疾寄生虫传播动态。第四，用于识别疟疾病媒浓度的新预测模型将经过严格的现场测试 并进行改进，以提高其准确性和马里以外地区的潜在效用。该项目为开发室外环境中按蚊媒介控制的新方法和工具提供了坚实的科学基础，具有帮助马里和其他国家改善疟疾控制并推进消除疟疾的最终目标的巨大潜力。