Abstract: Edible insects reared under suitable climatic conditions are an efficient and ecological food source. However, most of the insects come from wild collection and not from farms (FAO, 2013). To establish insects as part of a sustainable food environment, collectors, farmers or small entrepreneurs need to be transformed into mini-livestock farmers, but people who eat or collect insects do not necessarily want to rear them. This paper presents four case studies from Kenya, Madagascar, ...
Abstract: Malaria parasites adopt a remarkable variety of morphological life stages as they transition through multiple mammalian host and mosquito vector environments. We profiled the single-cell transcriptomes of thousands of individual parasites, deriving the first high-resolution transcriptional atlas of the entire Plasmodium berghei life cycle. We then used our atlas to precisely define developmental stages of single cells from three different human malaria parasite species, including p...
Abstract: Background: Plasmodium falciparum causes the deadliest form of malaria in humans. Upon infection, the host’s infected red blood cells (iRBCs) are remodelled by exported parasite proteins to provide a niche for parasite development and maturation. Methods: Here we analysed the role of three PHISTb proteins Pf3D7_0532400, Pf3D7_1401600, and Pf3D7_1102500 by expressing recombinant proteins and evaluated antibody responses against these proteins using immune sera from malaria-exposed...
Abstract: Background: Exagerated immune activation has a key role in the pathogenesis of malaria. During blood-stage infection, Plasmodium falciparum can interact directly with host immune cells through infected red blood cells (PfiRBCs), or indirectly by the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs). Here, we compared the impact of PfiRBCs and P. falciparum small-sized EVs (PfsEVs, also known as exosomes) from a Kenyan clinical isolate (PfKE12) adapted to short-term laboratory culture conditi...
Abstract: Botswana has in the recent past 10 years made tremendous progress in the control of malaria and this informed re-orientation from malaria control to malaria elimination by the year 2020. This progress is attributed to improved case management, and scale-up of key vector control interventions; indoor residual spraying (IRS) and long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). However, insecticide resistance, outdoor biting and resting, and predisposing human behaviour, such as staying outdoo...
Abstract: Background: Zoophilic mosquitoes play an important role in the transmission of arboviruses of medical importance at human-wildlife interfaces, yet arbovirus surveillance efforts have been focused mostly on anthropophilic mosquitoes. Understanding the diversity of zoophilic mosquitoes and their associated feeding patterns and arboviruses can inform better vector control strategies. Materials and Methods: We morphologically identified mosquitoes collected from two game reserves in Ke...
Abstract: A better understanding of the oviposition behaviour of malaria vectors might facilitate the development of new vector control tools. However, the factors that guide the aquatic habitat selection of gravid females are poorly understood. The present study explored the relative attractiveness of similar artificial ponds (0.8 m2) aged at varying lengths prior to opening in such a way that wild Anopheles arabiensis could choose between ponds that were freshly set up, or were aged 4 or 1...
Abstract: Background: Capacity strengthening of rural communities, and the various actors that support them, is needed to enable them to lead their own malaria control programmes. Here the existing capacity of a rural community in western Kenya was evaluated in preparation for a larger intervention. Methods: Focus group discussions and semi-structured individual interviews were carried out in 1,451 households to determine (1) demographics of respondent and household; (2) socio-economic statu...
Abstract: Powders of Piper guineense and Spilanthes mauritiana, potential mosquito larvicides, (continue from the attached pdf)
Abstract: There has been a considerable recent interest in the criteria by which animals choose mates and in the extent to which mating systems tend to be based on mutual mate choice. In this study, we consider Evarcha culicivora, a salticid spider from East Africa. This species has some unusual characteristics, including active display by females as well as males, males that kill females more frequently than females kill males and wide intrasexual variation in body size. For females, larger...
Abstract: Background: There is renewed acknowledgement that targeting gametocytes is essential for malaria control and elimination efforts. Simple mathematical models were fitted to data from clinical trials in order to determine the mean gametocyte circulation time and duration of gametocyte carriage in treated malaria patients. Methods: Data were used from clinical trials from East Africa. The first trial compared non-artemisinin combination therapy (non-ACT: sulphadoxine-yrimethamine (SP)...
Abstract: Females of Anopheles gambiae Giles normally oviposit in a large number of fresh, small, sunlit, and spatially spread temporary pools. Such pools are associated with lower levels of predation compared to large, longerlasting habitats. We compared oviposition levels on preferred (water collected from natural anopheline larval habitats) and non-preferred (distilled water) aqueous substrates by gravid females that contained different densities of conspecific eggs or early and late inst...
Abstract: Studies on the larvicidal properties of extracts and fractions from Kotschya uguenensis Verdc. were done by long-term exposure of Anopheles gambiae s.s. larvae. The cumulative mean percentage mortalities and deformities at different concentrations for the extracts and fractions were recorded after every 24 h. Treatment of A. gambiae s.s. larvae with K. uguenensis extracts showed growth disruption by forming elongated guts and resulting in eventual death. Larvae treated with the met...
Abstract: Concentrations and distribution of cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, manganese and zinc in mosquito larval habitats in urban Kisumu and Malindi, Kenya and their effect on the presence of Anopheles gambiae, Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles funestus larvae were investigated. Manganese and iron were the most prevalent heavy metals in water of larval habitats in urban Kisumu and Malindi, respectively. Iron was the most prevalent heavy metal in bottom sediments i...
Abstract: Studies were conducted to determine the contribution of diverse larval habitats to adult Anopheles arabiensis Patton and Culex quinquefasciatus Say production in a rice land agro-ecosystem in Mwea, Kenya. Two sizes of cages were placed in different habitat types to investigate the influence of non-mosquito invertebrates on larval mortalities and the contribution of each habitat type to mosquito productivities, respectively. These emergence traps had fine netting material covers to ...