Human host preference of Anopheles mosquitoes collected from students hostels in a Nigerian university

Abstract

Human host preference of female

Anopheles mosquitoes collected from student

hostels of the Lagos State University (LASU) in south

†western, Nigeria

was determined. Two hundred and seventy two (272) mosquitoes were collected

indoors out of which 219 (80.5%) female

Anopheles were identified

using morphological characters. One hundred and thirty five (61.6%) females

were collected from male hostels whereas 84 (38.3%) were collected from

female hostels (

X2= 11.86 P<0.05). Engorged female Anopheles was identified

by their swollen abdomens. The blood meals were analyzed using direct

enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods

. From the male hostels,

human blood index (HBI) was low as out of 94 blood meals analyzed,

only two (2.1%) fed on human , 2 on rats (2.1%), 4 (4.2%) on goat and fifteen

(15.9%) were having mixed blood of rat, goat and human, whereas the

remaining 61(64.8%) were not found fed on either of these host. The HBI of

Anopheles

Anopheles collected from male and female hostels respectively (X2=

8.64 P<0.05.) The result suggested that female students were more attracted

to anthropophagic

Anopheles, and therefore more vulnerable to acquire

malaria infection.

collected from female hostels was significantly higher as 37

(63.9%) mosquitoes were found fed on human, with 2 (3.4%) having mixed

blood of human , rat and goat. The study indicated HBI of 18% and 67.2%

from