Anopheles jamesii Supports Plasmodium vivax Sporogony under Laboratory Conditions

Ajeet Kumar Mohanty ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research, Field Unit, Goa, India;

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Debattam Mazumdar ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research, Field Unit, Goa, India;

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Abhishek Govekar ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research, Field Unit, Goa, India;

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Charles De’souza ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research, Field Unit, Goa, India;

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Abhipsa Mohapatra Department of Botany, Goa University, Goa, India;

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Praveen Balabaskaran Nina Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, India

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Anopheles jamesii, considered to be a non-malaria vector, is an abundant mosquito species found in coastal India and several countries in Asia. In Goa, western India, An. jamesii is the dominant anopheline species by numbers, and in recent epidemiological surveys, they have tested positive for Plasmodium carriage. To assess An. jamesii’s capacity as a malaria vector, we carried out six controlled membrane feeding assays with the F1 generation of field-caught An. jamesii and Plasmodium vivax-infected patient blood samples. As a control, the established local vector, Anopheles stephensi, was fed in parallel to compare the oocyst and sporozoite loads. The average oocyst load of An. jamesii was 3.29, while for An. stephensi it was 10.23. Furthermore, An. jamesii’s blood feeding rate (21.7% versus 85%), oocyst positivity rate (60% versus 90.6%), and sporozoite positivity (45.16% versus 83%) were significantly lower (P <0.05, unpaired t test) than those of An. stephensi, suggesting a recent adaptation to support Plasmodium sporogony.

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Author Notes

Financial support: This research was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (proposal no. 2021-15218/F3).

Disclosure: The Institutional Ethics Committee of ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research, New Delhi, has given the necessary approval for collecting the blood samples from the malaria patients and conducting the study under approval no. ECR/NIMR/EC/2017/44.

Current contact information: Ajeet Kumar Mohanty, Debattam Mazumdar, Abhishek Govekar, and Charles De’souza, ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research, Field Unit, Goa, India, E-mails: ajeet.nimr@gmail.com, cadetdebattam@gmail.com, abhishekashokgovekar1998@gmail.com, and charles.desouza@biology.ox.ac.uk. Abhipsa Mohapatra, Department of Botany, Goa University, Goa, India, E-mail: abhipsa.mm@gmail.com. Praveen Balabaskaran Nina, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod, India, E-mail: praveen.nina@cukerala.ac.in.

Address correspondence to Ajeet Kumar Mohanty, ICMR–National Institute of Malaria Research, Field Unit, DHS Building, Campal, Panaji, Goa 403001, India. E-mail: ajeet.nimr@gmail.com
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