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The relationship between house height and mosquito house entry: an experimental study in rural Gambia

Carrasco-Tenezaca, Majo; Jawara, Musa; Abdi, Mahamed Y.; Bradley, John; Brittain, Otis Sloan; Ceesay, Sainey; D'Alessandro, Umberto; Jeffries, David; Pinder, Margaret; Wood, Hannah; Knudsen, Jakob B.; Lindsay, Steve W.

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Authors

Majo Carrasco-Tenezaca

Musa Jawara

Mahamed Y. Abdi

John Bradley

Otis Sloan Brittain

Sainey Ceesay

Umberto D'Alessandro

David Jeffries

Margaret Pinder

Hannah Wood

Jakob B. Knudsen



Abstract

Most malaria infections in sub-Saharan Africa are acquired indoors, thus finding effective ways of preventing mosquito house entry should reduce transmission. Since most malaria mosquitoes fly less than 1 m from the ground, we tested whether raising buildings off the ground would prevent the entry of Anopheles gambiae, the principal African malaria vector, in rural Gambia. Nightly collections of mosquitoes were made using light traps from four inhabited experimental huts, each of which could be moved up or down. Mosquito house entry declined with increasing height, with a hut at 3 m reducing An. gambiae house entry by 84% when compared with huts on the ground. A propensity for malaria vectors to fly close to the ground and reduced levels of carbon dioxide, a major mosquito attractant, in elevated huts, may explain our findings. Raised buildings may help reduce malaria transmission in Africa.

Citation

Carrasco-Tenezaca, M., Jawara, M., Abdi, M. Y., Bradley, J., Brittain, O. S., Ceesay, S., …Lindsay, S. W. (2021). The relationship between house height and mosquito house entry: an experimental study in rural Gambia. Journal of the Royal Society. Interface, 18(178), Article 20210256. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0256

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 5, 2021
Online Publication Date May 26, 2021
Publication Date 2021-05
Deposit Date Jun 10, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of the Royal Society, Interface
Print ISSN 1742-5689
Publisher The Royal Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 18
Issue 178
Article Number 20210256
DOI https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0256

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