Anopheles arabiensis in Sudan: a noticeable tolerance to urban polluted larval habitats associated with resistance to Temephos

Abstract Background It has been documented that unplanned urbanization leads to the exposure of members of the Anopheles vectors to a range of water pollution in urban settings. Many surveys from African and Asian countries reported the presence of Anopheles larvae in polluted urban habitats. The present study documents an obvious tolerance of the melanic and normal forms of Anopheles arabiensis to urban polluted larval habitats accompanied by resistance to Temephos larvicide. Methods A cross-sectional survey was carried out to inspect apparently polluted An. arabiensis larval habitats during the hot dry season of 2015. Larval specimens were collected from only apparently polluted habitats after visual inspection from 5 localities in Khartoum State. After morphological and molecular identification of random samples of larvae the magnitude of water pollution was determined using nine abiotic factors. The susceptibility status of An. arabiensis larval forms from normal and polluted habitats to Temephos was tested using the WHO standard diagnostic concentration doses. Results Morphological and PCR analysis of anopheline larvae revealed the presence of An. arabiensis, a member of the Anopheles gambiae complex. Seven out of 9 physiochemical parameters showed higher concentrations in polluted larval habitats in comparison to control site. Anopheles arabiensis larvae were found in water bodies characterized by high mean of conductivity (1857.8 ± 443.3 uS/cm), turbidity (189.4 ± 69.1 NTU) and nitrate (19.7 ± 16.7 mg/l). The range of mortality rates of An. arabiensis larvae collected from polluted habitats in comparison to An. arabiensis larvae collected from non-polluted habitats was 6.7–64% (LD50 = 1.682) and 67.6–96% (LD50 = 0.806), respectively. Conclusions The present study reveals that minor populations of An. arabiensis larval forms are adapted to breed in polluted urban habitats, which further influenced susceptibility to Temephos, especially for the melanic larval forms. This could have further implications on the biology of the malaria vector and on the transmission and epidemiology of urban malaria in Sudan

Additional file 1 of Cost effectiveness of malaria vector control activities in Sudan

Additional file 1. Financial costs included in the analysis of the LLIBN and IRS control activities

Scorpion stings envenomation in Sudan: a retrospective study of hospital-based incidence

AbstractScorpion stings are a common medical emergency in many parts of the world. However, no statistical records are available about the incidence of scorpion sting envenomation and related mortality rates in the Sudan. This study aimed to describe the burden in the Sudan and to highlight the most affected states. We extracted retrospective hospital-based data on scorpions’ stings envenomation for the years 2014–2018 from the annual statistical reports of the Federal Ministry of Health, Republic of the Sudan. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the extracted data and elucidate the results. A total of 129,427 people were envenomed during 2014–2018 with a mean of 25,885 cases/year. More adults were stung compared to children. However, mortality was higher among children younger than 15 years old 4.7% (186/3974) than older victims 1% (56/5371). Envenomation was more frequent in males (56%) than females (44%). The Northern state reported the highest incidence of scorpion stings (344 per 100,000 population), followed by the River Nile state (240 per 100,000 population), and Khartoum state (174 per 100,000 population). Fatalities amongst hospitalized patients were 2.6% (242/9345) with the Northern state accounting for 34% (0.8/2.3) of total fatalities reported

JavaScript for Nested donut (pie) charts

Replace JS in the example chrt at: http://codepen.io/amcharts/pen/787aea8ba37ca13fe749093282a9fbf3?editors=001 with the script in this file to obtain one of the pie charts in the paper

Genpop on the Web data file - Microsatellite genotypes

Genpop on the Web data file - Microsatellite genotypic data of wild and colony mosquitoes

Laboratory rearing of mosquitos (Anopheles arabiensis): impact on genetic variability and implications for Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) based mosquito control in northern Sudan

© 2016 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.The population genetic makeup of the 13th generation of a laboratory colony of Anopheles arabiensis mosquitos at 11 microsatellite loci was compared to that of the field population from which the colony was founded. Major changes which include significant reductions in the total number of alleles, the numbers of rare and private alleles, and the fractions of heterozygote individuals at all the loci were observed. The pattern of change is consistent with the expected effect of the use of a small number of mosquitos when the colony was established. Random genetic drift during the 13 generations of laboratory propagation could have contributed but the size of the colony population in successive generations was large enough to minimize this. The colony samples were at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at all the autosomal loci; the field population showed significant homozygote excess in three of them, as did the two X-linked loci in both populations. We attribute the homozygote excess to null-alleles. The Sterile Insect Techniques (SIT) program of mosquito control that is underway in Northern Sudan uses sterilized males produced from the colony population we studied. We discuss the potential fitness consequences of the loss of genetic diversity in the colony population and recommend their systematic investigation because they have direct and significant impact on the ultimate success of the SIT program.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Aedes mosquitoes in the Republic of the Sudan, with dichotomous keys for the adult and larval stages

ABSTRACT Descriptions of the mosquitoes of the Republic of the Sudan are mostly limited to works published more than 60 years ago. Khartoum State in central Sudan, which encompasses the capital city, has experienced many outbreaks of diseases caused by mosquito-borne pathogens, including Rift Valley fever. In this paper we focus on the composition of Aedes mosquitoes in high-risk areas in and around major agricultural projects. This is based on longitudinal surveillance of adults and larvae during the hot dry and rainy seasons in 2013. A total of 630 adult female mosquitoes were collected. Anopheles mosquitoes were the most abundant (n = 456, 72.4%), followed by Culex (n = 96, 15.2%) and Aedes (n = 78, 12.4%). Only three Aedes species were identified: Aedes caballus (n = 38, 48.7% of the Aedes), Aedes vexans arabiensis (n = 30, 38.5%) and Aedes caspius (n = 10, 12.8%). A total of 42,549 larvae were collected. Aedes larvae were the most abundant (n = 30,936, 72.7%), followed by Culex (n = 9656, 22.7%) and Anopheles (n = 1957, 4.6%). The Aedes larvae included Ae. caspius (n = 21,957, 71.0% of the Aedes), Ae. vexans arabiensis (n = 5577, 18.0%), Aedes quasiunivittatus (n = 107, 0.3%), Aedes dentatus (Theobald) (n = 204, 0.7%) and 3091 unidentifiable larvae (10.0%), denoted as Forms X, Y and Z. We discuss the bionomics of the four identified species of Aedes and provide updated keys for the identification of the mosquito genera and the larvae and adults of the Aedes species recorded from the Republic of the Sudan. ARTICLE HISTOR