In this study we used DNA profiling of polymorphic human loci to examine three aspects of the interaction between Aedes aegypti and their human hosts in a suburban Puerto Rican and 4 rural Thai communities where dengue is endemic. First, we determined whether multiple blood feeding during a single gonotrophic cycle involved different people. Second, we tested the hypothesis that mosquito bites are not uniformly distributed across the human host population. Heterogeneity of human biting frequencies has been associated with differences in host permissiveness (i.e., defensive behavior) and attractiveness, both of which are affected by race, age, size, and health. Third, we established the extent to which household visitors are bitten by resident mosquitoes. Evidence that engorged Ae. aegypti contained blood from non-residents would be consistent with the hypothesis that the rapid spread of dengue cases within and among communities during an epidemic is due more to the movement of virus-inoculated people than to the flight of infected adult mosquitoes. Our results support the hypothesis that multiple blood feeding by Ae. aegypti is an important component of Ae. aegypti's role in dengue virus transmission. Significant portions of the mosquitoes we collected imbibed blood from different people during single gonotrophic cycles, different people at different rates, and visitors to the houses were the engorged mosquitoes were captured.
Species 1: Diptera Culicidae Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquito)
Keywords: human blood feeding, DNA profiling
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA