Contribution of Anopheles funestus, An. gambiae and An. nili (Diptera: Culicidae) to the perennial malaria transmission in the southern and western forest areas of Cote d'Ivoire

The involvement of members of the Anopheles gambiae complex Giles and An. funestus Giles and An. nili Theobald groups in the transmission of Plasmodium falciparum was recently investigated in the villages of Gbatta and Kpehiri, which lie, respectively, in forest areas in the west and south of Cote d'Ivoire. Adult female mosquitoes were collected, using human landing catches, inside and outside dwellings. After identification and dissection, the heads and thoraces of all the anopheline mosquitoes were tested, in an ELISA, for circumsporozoite protein (CSP). All the female anopheline mosquitoes collected and identified to species using PCR were found to be An. gambiae s.s., An. nili s.s. or An. funestus s.s., with An. gambiae s.s. and An. funestus s.s. predominant in Gbatta but An. nili s.s. the most common species in Kpehiri. In Gbatta, 3.1% of the female An. gambiae collected, 5.0% of the female An. funestus and 1.8% of the female An. nili were found CSP-positive. The corresponding values in Kpehiri were even higher, at 5.9%, 6.2% and 2.4%, respectively. The estimated entomological inoculation rates (EIR) were very high: 302 infected bites (139 from An. gambiae, 146 from An. funestus and 17 from An. nili)/person-year in Gbatta and 484 infected bites (204 from An. gambiae, 70 from An. funestus and 210 from An. nili)/person-year in Kpehiri. In Gbatta, An. gambiae s.s. was responsible for most of the rainy-season transmission while An. funestus became the main malaria vector in the dry seasons. In Kpehiri, however, An. nili appeared to be the main vector throughout the year, with An. gambiae of secondary importance and An. funestus only becoming a significant vector during the rainy season. Although, in both study sites, intense transmission was therefore occurring and the same three species of anopheline mosquito were present, the relative importance of each mosquito species in the epidemiology of the human malaria at each site differed markedly.