Journal of Medical Entomology (2013) 50, 804-815

F.M. Stell, R.M. Roe, C. Arellano and C.S. Apperson (2013)
Innovative sugar-insecticide feeding bioassay for adult female Anopheles gambiae (Diptera: Culicidae)
Journal of Medical Entomology 50 (4), 804-815
Abstract: The primary malaria vector in sub-Saharan Africa, Anopheles gambiae Giles (Diptera: Culicidae), is an anthropophagic and endophilic mosquito targeted for control with insecticides applied to interior resting surfaces and impregnated onto bed net materials. Effective malaria vector management involves monitoring the insecticide susceptibility of mosquito populations. Contemporary bioassays are based on mosquito contact with insecticide residues. We developed an innovative insecticide bioassay system that involves mosquito ingestion of a sugar-insecticide solution. The sucrose-permethrin solution in our bioassay system contained Trypan blue dye, creating a visual marker of insecticide ingestion in the mosquito's abdomen. Blue fecal spots deposited in the bioassay container provided further evidence of mosquito feeding. We used our bioassay to characterize the permethrin susceptibility of adult females of two strains of A. gambiae, one of which was susceptible and the other exhibited reduced susceptibility to permethrin. We compared the dose-response of both strains to permethrin in a forced-contact filter paper bioassay. Both assay approaches produced similar dose-dependent mortality, indicating that the feeding bioassay had appropriately characterized permethrin susceptibility for both mosquito strains.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): R. Michael Roe

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
control - general

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Anopheles gambiae		Kenya