| dc.description.abstract | studies were carried out in Kisian area with the
objective of observing the influence of malaria parasite
infection on the feeding behaviour and fecundity of wild
anopheline mosquitoes. Five anopheline species; Anopheles
gambiae 5.1., An. funestus, An. ziemanni, An. coustani and An.
pharoensis were identified in the study area. Hungry females
captured by human bait were placed in small cages and offered
a blood meal from anaesthetised hamsters. Mosquito behaviour
was recorded for a period of 10 minutes. Thirty-five percent
of hungry females probed. Feedtng,pehaviour was compared
between infected and uninfected groups of An. gambiae 5.1. and
". ,
An. funestus. Plasmodium fa1diparum-infected Anopheles
gambiae 5.1. made significantly more probes than their
uninfected counterparts. Infected An. gambiae 5.1. probed
nearly twice as often as uninfected An. gambiae 5.1. and also
had a significantly higher mean total probing time than
uninfected females. This behaviour was not correlated with
the intensity of the infection. Sporozoite infection of An.
gambiae 5.1. did not affect the time taken by the mosquito to
feed to repletion. Like Anopheles gambiae 5.1., infected An.
funestus probed more often and for a longer time than did
uninfected females. However, these differences were not
statistically significant. Among uninfected females, probing
and feeding behaviour of An.gambiae 5.1. was not related to
parity status. | en |
