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DNA PROFILING OF HUMAN BLOOD IN ANOPHELINES FROM LOWLAND AND HIGHLAND SITES IN WESTERN KENYA

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.

Received December 1, 2005. Accepted for publication April 7, 2006.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank the people of Kombewa and Iguhu for working with us and allowing us to collect mosquitoes from their homes. Harryson Atieli, Peter Wamae, Carolyne Okoth, Yaw Afrane, Bryson Ndenga, and Robison Oriango collected and processed mosquitoes in the field laboratory.

Financial support: This research was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant AI-50243.

^* Address correspondence to Thomas W. Scott, Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616. E-mail: twscott{at}ucdavis.edu

Authors’ addresses: Thomas W. Scott and Andrew Fleisher, Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616. Andre Githeko, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kisumu, Kenya. Laura C. Harrington, Department of Entomology Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Guiyun Yan, Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260.

Reprint requests: Thomas W. Scott, Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616. E-mail: twscott{at}ucdavis.edu.

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