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Sugar-fermenting yeast as an organic source of carbon dioxide to attract the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae s.s.
Malaria Journal volume 9, Article number: O29 (2010)
Background
Carbon dioxide (CO2) plays an important role in the host-seeking process of opportunistic, zoophilic and anthropophilic mosquito species and is therefore commonly added to mosquito sampling tools. The African malaria vector Anopheles gambiae Giles sensu stricto is attracted to human volatiles augmented by CO2. We investigated whether CO2, usually supplied from gas cylinders acquired from commercial industry, could be replaced by CO2 derived from fermenting yeast (yeast-produced CO2).
Methods
Trapping experiments were conducted in the laboratory, semi-field and field, with An. gambiae s.s. as the target species. MM-X traps were baited with volatiles produced by yeast-sugar solutions, prepared in bottles. Catches were compared with traps baited with industrial CO2. The additional effect of human odours was also examined.
Results
Traps baited with yeast-produced CO2 caught significantly more mosquitoes than unbaited traps and also significantly more than traps baited with industrial CO2, both in the laboratory and semi-field. Adding yeast-produced CO2 to traps baited with human odour significantly increased trap catches. During the field trials, traps baited with yeast-produced CO2 caught similar numbers of An. arabiensis Patton as traps baited with industrial CO2. Addition of human odour increased trap catches.
Conclusions
We conclude that yeast-produced CO2 can effectively replace industrial CO2 for sampling of An. gambiae s.s.. This will significantly reduce costs and allow sustainable mass application of odour-baited devices for mosquito sampling in remote areas.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by a grant from the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative (GCGH#121).
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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. 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.
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Smallegange, R.C., Schmied, W.H., van Roey, K.J. et al. Sugar-fermenting yeast as an organic source of carbon dioxide to attract the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae s.s.. Malar J 9 (Suppl 2), O29 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-S2-O29
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-S2-O29
Keywords
- Malaria
- Malaria Vector
- Mosquito Species
- Anopheles Gambiae
- Malaria Mosquito