Abstract
BackgroundThe mosquito, Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles is a prevalent and confirmed Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV) vector. This vector, in association with Aedimorphus arabiensis (Patton), was responsible for causing the outbreak of 2000 in Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia.Methodology/Principal FindingsLarval occurrence records and a total of 19 bioclimatic and three topographic layers imported from Worldclim Database were used to predict the larval suitable breeding habitats for this vector in Jazan Province using ArcGIS ver.10 and MaxEnt modeling program. Also, a supervised land cover classification from SPOT5 imagery was developed to assess the land cover distribution within the suitable predicted habitats. Eleven bioclimatic and slope attributes were found to be the significant predictors for this larval suitable breeding habitat. Precipitation and temperature were strong predictors of mosquito distribution. Among six land cover classes, the linear regression model (LM) indicated wet muddy substrate is significantly associated with high-very high suitable predicted habitats (R2 = 73.7%, P<0.05). Also, LM indicated that total dissolved salts (TDS) was a significant contributor (R2 = 23.9%, P<0.01) in determining mosquito larval abundance.Conclusion/SignificanceThis model is a first step in understanding the spatial distribution of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus and consequently the risk of RVFV in Saudi Arabia and to assist in planning effective mosquito surveillance and control programs by public health personnel and researchers.
Highlights
Thirty-three species of mosquitoes have been reported from the 15 provinces of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [1]
Saudi Arabia has a population of about 27 million distributed in 13 provinces, including about 11 million recent immigrants, including almost two million illegal residents [28,29].The current study was conducted in Jazan Province, which is located in southwestern Saudi Arabia (Fig. 1) and includes,13,432 km2 [30] inhabited by 1,365,110 people averaging 117people/km2 [28,30]
A total of 3,090 mosquito larvae were collected in 60 days in Jazan Province from 98 sites of different elevations during the dry season from February-May, 2012
Summary
Thirty-three species of mosquitoes have been reported from the 15 provinces of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [1]. Culex tritaeniorhynchus was confirmed as a vector of Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV) with a biting preference for humans and sheep [2]. This species is a primary vector of Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus in Asia [3]. The mosquito, Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles is a prevalent and confirmed Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV) vector. This vector, in association with Aedimorphus arabiensis (Patton), was responsible for causing the outbreak of 2000 in Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
