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Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon

BACKGROUND: The invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus is often considered a poor vector of human pathogens, owing to its catholic feeding behavior. However, it was recently incriminated as a major vector in several Chikungunya epidemics, outside of its native range. Here we assessed two key elements of...

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Autores principales: Kamgang, Basile, Nchoutpouen, Elysée, Simard, Frédéric, Paupy, Christophe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3342132/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22433236
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-5-57
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author Kamgang, Basile
Nchoutpouen, Elysée
Simard, Frédéric
Paupy, Christophe
author_facet Kamgang, Basile
Nchoutpouen, Elysée
Simard, Frédéric
Paupy, Christophe
author_sort Kamgang, Basile
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus is often considered a poor vector of human pathogens, owing to its catholic feeding behavior. However, it was recently incriminated as a major vector in several Chikungunya epidemics, outside of its native range. Here we assessed two key elements of feeding behavior by Ae. albopictus females in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Central Africa. Host preference was explored and the human-biting activity of females was monitored over 24 h to determine periods of maximum bite exposure. FINDINGS: Analysis of ingested blood in outdoor-resting females showed that Ae. albopictus preferentially fed on humans rather than on available domestic animals (95% of the blood meals contained human blood). Our results further showed that Ae. albopictus is a day-biting species in Yaoundé, with a main peak of activity in the late afternoon. CONCLUSION: This is the first report on the feeding behavior of Ae. albopictus in Central Africa. The species is highly aggressive to humans and might therefore be involved in human-human virus transmission in this setting.
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spelling pubmed-33421322012-05-03 Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon Kamgang, Basile Nchoutpouen, Elysée Simard, Frédéric Paupy, Christophe Parasit Vectors Short Report BACKGROUND: The invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus is often considered a poor vector of human pathogens, owing to its catholic feeding behavior. However, it was recently incriminated as a major vector in several Chikungunya epidemics, outside of its native range. Here we assessed two key elements of feeding behavior by Ae. albopictus females in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Central Africa. Host preference was explored and the human-biting activity of females was monitored over 24 h to determine periods of maximum bite exposure. FINDINGS: Analysis of ingested blood in outdoor-resting females showed that Ae. albopictus preferentially fed on humans rather than on available domestic animals (95% of the blood meals contained human blood). Our results further showed that Ae. albopictus is a day-biting species in Yaoundé, with a main peak of activity in the late afternoon. CONCLUSION: This is the first report on the feeding behavior of Ae. albopictus in Central Africa. The species is highly aggressive to humans and might therefore be involved in human-human virus transmission in this setting. BioMed Central 2012-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3342132/ /pubmed/22433236 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-5-57 Text en Copyright ©2012 Kamgang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Short Report
Kamgang, Basile
Nchoutpouen, Elysée
Simard, Frédéric
Paupy, Christophe
Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon
title Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon
title_full Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon
title_fullStr Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon
title_full_unstemmed Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon
title_short Notes on the blood-feeding behavior of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) in Cameroon
title_sort notes on the blood-feeding behavior of aedes albopictus (diptera: culicidae) in cameroon
topic Short Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3342132/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22433236
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-5-57
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