Host-feeding Preference of Anopheles Species under Prolonged Use of Insecticide-treated Bed Nets in Kamuli District, Uganda: Implications for Vector Control

Background: The blood-feeding patterns are crucial in incriminating disease vectors as well as facilitating the design and consolidation of effective vector control interventions in an area.

Objective: This study aimed to establish if prolonged use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) caused a shift in the preferred hosts of the common malaria vectors as the hosts were under the bed net. Such a shift would render ITNs less effective and would probably explain the continued morbidity and mortality due to malaria in the highly endemic Kamuli district.

Methods: A total of 3,519 indoor and outdoor human biting female Anopheles gambiae sensu lato and An. funestus mosquitoes were collected from 48 households using human-baited bed net traps. All 187 indoor resting blood-fed anophelines collected were tested by direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for blood meal host identification. Of these, 73 mid guts came from 24 households in villages with a 69% ITNs coverage, while 114 mid guts were from 24 households in non-ITN villages.

Results: Blood meal hosts were identified in only 10.96% (n = 8) and 14.91% (n = 17) of the Anopheles blood meals from the intervention and non-intervention zones, respectively. Other blood meals could not be clearly identified. Eight (100%) blood meals in the intervention zone were from humans, while in the non-intervention zone, 15 (88.24%), one (5.88%) and one (5.88%) came from humans, cattle and goat, respectively. These findings demonstrated that the malaria vectors in Kamuli district are anthropophilic, with nearly all the mosquitoes collected from both zones feeding on humans during every blood meal (p = 0.82). This indicated high vector-human contacts, and thus implicating these species as important in the transmission of Plasmodium species and probably other infections.

Conclusion: The use of insecticide-treated bed nets is effective for controlling malaria vectors inside houses, evoking universal coverage of houses in the area.