Due to limited resources available I would like to survey aquatic habitats for the Anopheles arabiensis again and link them to the higher prevalence of malaria in my study area, without considering the adult sporozoite rate. Is this possible? My preliminary survey however indicates that these habitats are potential for them. How can I link the habitat question with the prevalence rate which is my bigger hypothesis?
I am familiar with a longitudinal study conducted in Senegal that may help you design your study. I have attached a pdf file.
Thanks a lot Frank!
I have been reading it, I can see your concept. Frank, this is more like a general question from your design. Suppose my hypothesis is that extensiveness of habitat in a river influences mosquito abundance, which is the best way to test this hypotheses. Sorry, I am just want to learn from you!
I am happy to provide you with my idea. I looked at your publications as see"Effects of Drought and Floods on Crop and Animal Losses and Socio-economic Status of Households in the Lake Victoria Basin of Kenya". You may have much of the data you can correlate to test your new hypothesis. You will need a way to determine change in the quantity of wetland habitat "hectors of mosquito breeding habitat seasonally throughout the study period within a study zone". This is your first variable. You may look at NASA earth observatory web site: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Search/index.php?q=kenya which contains large amounts of data seasonally for all locations. The link I pasted in will start you off in Kenya but look around and see if this site will provide you with a tools to quantify or estimate the mosquito breeding habitat you wish to study. From your publications it looks like your group have the methods and tools to determine mosquito number and type / hector throughout the study zone (second variable). I suspect that within your study zone you would see variation in mosquito density with higher mosquito numbers closest to breeding habitat with diminishing numbers in dry areas within the study zone. In addition, you would see variation from wet to dry season. Within the mosquito population you may choose to determine % infected mosquito and with which malaria parasite which your group also have the tools to perform (third variable). Another variable you may wish to consider is host on which the mosquito population has been feeding. You can determine this by reverse line PCR on collected mosquito populations. The attached article describes the technique for identifying the host species which has been fed upon by the american tick but the method would likely work on mosquito. I do now know which probes would be best for the host animals in your area so you may be able to dig this out of the literature. Correlation of these variables would make a very interesting manuscript. I hope this helps. You may contact me any time for assistance with your research. Best to you.
Hi Gabriel,
I have run a literature search to determine if malaria feeding patterns can be determined by a quick and easily performed method. Attached is a publication which may assist you should you choose to evaluate mosquito host choice as part of your demographic study. The reverse line PCR would be most accurate depending upon primers as anti IgG assays mentioned in the attached article are rarely species specific outside of human and murine assays. This is a very interesting hypothesis and I would like to hear more about your design and outcome.
Best to you
Frank
Frank,
Thanks a lot!
I am very pleased with your comments here, and I want to thank you for your generosity in knowledge. You have laid the path bare for me. I will inform you more about my progress with this research in the near future. Yes, it is interesting, Frank. I have thought about it for awhile.
Again, thank you very much,
Gabriel this method you attached looks superior and more precise in host identification than the other methods we discussed. If you choose to include native indigenous species such as cape buffalo, wildebeest etc in your analysis you may need to perform some additional alignments for mitochondrial cytochrome C and primer design. Here is a site tool which may help with additional primer selection should you choose. Thank you for the method.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/tools/primer-blast/index.cgi?LINK_LOC=BlastDescAd
Best to you
Frank
Dear Frank and Gabriel:
Really a fruitful conservation!
As you mentioned , the study of variables of host preferences, density within different breeding habitat types. I think the sporozoite rate still an important factor in the studies like this study, if this factor will be difficult to study, the cases number of malaria in the area will be good.
Thanks
Sara
Thanks Sara!
We thought it would be imperative to measure these indicators systematically. We were thinking logically towards that end. We then will have to develop a model to help us establish which variable is appropriate that can answer our research question.
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