Larvivorous fish in wells target the malaria vector sibling species of the Anopheles culicifacies complex in villages in Karnataka, India
Ghosh, S.K.; Tiwari, S.N.; Sathyanarayan, T.S.; Sampath, T.R.R.; Sharma, V.P.; Nanda, N.; Joshi, H.; Adak, T.; Subbarao, S.K.
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 99(2): 101-105
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 0035-9203 PMID: 15607336 DOI: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2004.03.009Document Number: 239896
Malaria was a major problem in a sericulture area of Karnataka, south India, where Anopheles culicifacies and A. fluviatilis were considered to be the main vectors. The sibling species complexes of these 2 species were analysed in 3 ecologically different villages. Among A. culicifacies, only sibling species A and B were found. In Puram, a village with 22 wells, species A predominated. Species B predominated in a village with 4 wells and a stream, and in a village with a stream and no wells. Poecilia reticulata fish were introduced into all wells and streams in the villages, and after one year no vectors were found in Puram, and all, or nearly all, A. culicifacies were species B in the other 2 villages. All A. fluviatilis belonged to the sibling species T. Blood meal analysis indicated that a few of the A. culicifacies collected had fed on humans while all the A. fluviatilis had fed on bovines. Before the introduction of fish, the annual parasite incidence for malaria was high in Puram, but much lower in the other 2 villages. From 1998, over one year after the release of the fish, until 2003, no malaria cases were detected in the 3 villages.
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