Human host preference of Anopheles mosquitoes collected from students hostels in a Nigerian university

Abstract

Human host preference of female Anopheles mosquitoes collected from studenthostels of the Lagos State University (LASU) in south ‐ western, Nigeriawas determined. Two hundred and seventy two (272) mosquitoes were collectedindoors out of which 219 (80.5%) female Anopheles were identifiedusing morphological characters. One hundred and thirty five (61.6%) femaleswere collected from male hostels whereas 84 (38.3%) were collected fromfemale hostels ( X2= 11.86 P<0.05). Engorged female Anopheles was identifiedby their swollen abdomens. The blood meals were analyzed using directenzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods . From the male hostels,human blood index (HBI) was low as out of 94 blood meals analyzed,only two (2.1%) fed on human , 2 on rats (2.1%), 4 (4.2%) on goat and fifteen(15.9%) were having mixed blood of rat, goat and human, whereas theremaining 61(64.8%) were not found fed on either of these host. The HBI ofAnopheles Anopheles collected from male and female hostels respectively (X2=8.64 P<0.05.) The result suggested that female students were more attractedto anthropophagic Anopheles, and therefore more vulnerable to acquiremalaria infection.collected from female hostels was significantly higher as 37(63.9%) mosquitoes were found fed on human, with 2 (3.4%) having mixedblood of human , rat and goat. The study indicated HBI of 18% and 67.2%from