Landscape movements of Anopheles gambiae malaria vector mosquitoes in rural Gambia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

For malaria control in Africa it is crucial to characterise the dispersal of its most efficient vector, Anopheles gambiae, in order to target interventions and assess their impact spatially. Our study is, we believe, the first to present a statistical model of dispersal probability against distance from breeding habitat to human settlements for this important disease vector.

Methods/principal findings

We undertook post-hoc analyses of mosquito catches made in The Gambia to derive statistical dispersal functions for An. gambiae sensu lato collected in 48 villages at varying distances to alluvial larval habitat along the River Gambia. The proportion dispersing declined exponentially with distance, and we estimated that 90% of movements were within 1.7 km. Although a

SUBMITTER: Thomas CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3715529 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature