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The Anopheles vector
Published in David A Warrell, Herbert M Gilles, Essential Malariology, 2017
Mike W Service, Harold Townson
Many anophelines are found in freshwater ponds and small collections of water such as pools and puddles that lack vegetation (e.g. A. gambiae in Africa and A. stephensi in India; Figure 4.12). Others are found in marshes or large ponds with floating or emergent vegetation (e.g. A. nili and A. funestus of Africa and A albimanus in Central America). Mosquitoes are not found in fast-flowing streams, but a few anophelines, such as A. pseudopunctipennis in South America, A. superpictus in Europe, A. minimus in Asia and A. maculatus in Malaysia, breed in the shallow, relatively still waters at the edges of streams or in springs and seepages. A few species (e.g. A. plumbeus in Europe) prefer rain-filled tree holes. Certain species of the subgenus Kerteszia (e.g. A. bellator and A.cruzii in Central and South America) select water-containing leaf axils of bromeliad plants growing on trees (Figure 4.13). Several species are found mainly in saline waters, including A atroparvus in Europe, A. aquasalis in Latin America, A. sundaicus and A. litoralis in Southeast Asia, and A. melas and A. merus in West and East Africa. Artificial containers, such as water pots, are generally unsuitable for most anopheline species, although A. stephensi in India is often found in water tanks and cisterns sited on roofs of buildings, as well as in tin cans, pots and wells. For some species, larvae occur in a great diversity of habitats. In Africa, the larvae of A. gambiae can be found in roadside pools, small puddles and hoof prints as well as in borrow pits and rice fields and, very occasionally, in water-filled village pots.
Parasites and Conservation Biology
Published in Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin, Parasitology, 2023
Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin
On an ecotourism trip to brazil’s remnant atlantic forest habitat, you are delighted to see brown howler monkeys and a profusion of epiphytic bromeliad plants living among the trees. You also happen to incur the bite of a common local mosquito, Anopheles (Kerteszia) cruzii, the larvae of which develop in water that accumulates at the base of the leaves of the bromeliads. A couple of weeks later you fall ill with a recurring fever and are diagnosed with a case of malaria, specifically attributed to Plasmodium simium, a recently recognized sylvatic species transmitted between New World primates like the howler monkeys you saw, and A. cruzii. Your case thus exemplifies a zoonosis, a disease of animals transmitted to humans, and as we have recently learned yet again all too well, zoonotic pathogens can rapidly emerge and even become pandemic. Further investigation reveals additional layers to your malaria story. P. simium is very similar to Plasmodium vivax, a human malaria species probably introduced to the New World by Europeans post-Columbus. It then spilled over into native hosts, established a sylvatic cycle and diverged sufficiently to be considered (arguably) a distinct species, P. simium. Meanwhile, a control program largely eliminated P. vivax from the human population living in the Atlantic Forest habitat region. This story touches on several phenomena relevant to the topic of Chapter 8: introduction of exotic parasites; adoption of new host species by the parasite; transfer of human parasites to our primate relatives (and transfer back again in this case); our deliberate attempts to exterminate some parasites, with some unforeseen consequences (the parasite came back in a different guise); the “rewilding” of a P. vivax-like parasite back into people and, lastly, all of this occurring in a highly fragmented habitat (only 7%–8% its original area) heavily impacted by human activity and subject to changing environmental circumstances. Those malaria parasites coursing through your blood have a circuitous historical narrative to tell, one that began in the blood of our great ape relatives in Africa.
A comprehensive analysis of malaria transmission in Brazil
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2019
Bianca C. Carlos, Luisa D. P. Rona, George K. Christophides, Jayme A. Souza-Neto
In recent years, the majority of cases in these areas were associated with the Atlantic rainforest, where mosquitoes of the Kerteszia subgenus are thought to be the main vectors. Bromeliad malaria is a term coined by Downs & Pittendrigh [73] to describe malaria transmitted by vectors breeding in water accumulating in bromeliad plants that are abundantly found across the Atlantic rainforest. Its transmission characteristics differs from that of Amazonian malaria, whose main vectors are water pool or paddle breeding mosquitoes. Bromeliad malaria, firstly detected during the construction of the São Paulo-Santos railway in 1898 [74–76], became endemic in the 1940s reaching some 40,000 cases annually in southern Brazil, mostly in the States of Paraná and Santa Catarina. Vector control measures including removal of bromeliads and deforestation followed by the introduction of eucalyptus trees were highly effective in reducing cases to less than 100 by 1982 [43]. Despite continuing vector control measures, transmission still occurs in or near the forest where competent bromeliad-breeding vectors, including An. cruzii and An. bellator, are found. This, combined with the high rates of imported malaria cases from Amazonian States and Africa, make such areas potential hotspots for seasonal outbreaks.