The viability of Anopheles gambiaesensustricto and Anopheles arabiensis (Diptera: Culicidae) eggs over time and the ovicidal activity of Beauveria bassiana (Ascomycota: Cordycipitaceae) and Metarhizium anisopliae (Ascomycota: Clavicipitaceae) were investigated. Eggs were incubated in soil or leaf litter for up to 12?weeks at 26?C and 75%, 86% or >98% relative humidity (RH). Eggs were treated topically with M. anisopliae ICIPE-30 or B. bassiana I93-825 conidia in either water or oil-in-water formulations. Survival of eggs whether treated or not with fungus was similar, and untreated eggs generally did not survive longer than 2?weeks regardless of the substrate or humidity tested. After a minimal 5-day exposure, M. anisopliae at 5???106?conidia/cm2 clearly reduced the number of larvae. The...
Abstract. Malaria vector control targeting the larval stages of mosquitoes was applied successfully against many species of Anopheles (Diptera: Culicidae) in malarious countries until the mid-20th Century. Since the introduction of DDT in the 1940s and the associated development of indoor residual spraying (IRS), which usually has a more powerful impact than larval control on vectorial capacity, the focus of malaria prevention programmes has shifted to the control of adult vectors. In the Afrotropical Region, where malaria is transmitted mainly by Anopheles funestus Giles and members of the Anopheles gambiae Giles complex, gaps in information on larval ecology and the ability of An. gambiaesensu lato to exploit a wide variety of larval habitats have discouraged efforts to develop and impl...
Abstract in english In order to evaluate the presence of specific IgG antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi in patients with clinical manifestations associated with Lyme borreliosis in Cali, Colombia, 20 serum samples from patients with dermatologic signs, one cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample from a patient with chronic neurologic and arthritic manifestations, and twelve serum samples from individuals without clinical signs associated with Lyme borreliosis were analyzed by IgG Western blot. The (more) results were interpreted following the recommendations of the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) for IgG Western blots. Four samples fulfilled the CDC criteria: two serum specimens from patients with morphea (localized scleroderma), the CSF from the patient with neurologic and arthritic manifestations, and one of the controls. Interpretation of positive serology for Lyme disease in non-endemic countries must be cautious. However these results suggest that the putative ...
BackgroundTwenty-eight genes putatively encoding cytosolic glutathione transferases have been identified in the Anopheles gambiae genome. We manually annotated these...Full Text Available
BackgroundA previous study showed for Anopheles gambiae s.s. a gradation of feeding preference on common plant species growing in a malaria holoendemic area in western...Full Text Available
The sequence and cytological location of five Anopheles gambiae glutathione S-transferase (GST) genes are described. Three of these genes, aggst1-8, aggst1-9 and aggst1-10, belong to the insect class...Full Text Available
The pyrethroid knockdown resistance gene (kdr) has become widespread in Anopheles gambiae in West Africa. A trial to test the continuing efficacy of insecticide-treated...Full Text Available
BackgroundLarviciding is a key strategy used in many vector control programmes around the world. Costs could be reduced if larvicides could be manufactured locally. The potential...Full Text Available
Health education and awareness involves providing knowledge about causes of illness and choices to promote a change in individual behaviour and, thus, improves survival of individuals. Studies have,...Full Text Available
A remarkable range of variation has been demonstrated in the biting habits of A. darlingi in South America. At the centre of its area of distribution, the species comprises both anthropo-endophilic...Full Text Available
BackgroundBlood group O has been significantly associated with increased placental malaria infection in primiparae and reduced risk of infection in multiparae in the Gambia, an area...Full Text Available
The most characteristic features of the Lyme disease pathogens, the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) group, are their ability to invade tissues and to circumvent the immune defenses...Full Text Available
BmpA, BmpB, BmpC, and BmpD are homologous Borrelia burgdorferi lipoproteins of unknown functions, encoded by the bmp genes of paralogous chromosomal gene family 36....Full Text Available
Abstract Lyme disease is a perfect model of the complex relationship between host, vector, and the vector-borne bacteria. Both dogs and horses in Romania are exposed to infection. The aim of the present study was to assess the seroreactivity against Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in dogs and horses from different regions of Romania. 276 samples from dogs and 260 samples from horses located in different regions of Romania were analyzed by ELISA and IFA, respectively. The effect of several factors potentially affecting seroreactivity (location, age, gender, occupation, and vector exposition risk) was evaluated using Fisher's exact test (R 2.12.0). The overall prevalence of anti-Borrelia antibodies was 6.52% (18/276) in dogs, with a significantly higher positivity (46.15%, 6/13, p=0.0005) re...
BackgroundScaling up of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) with support from the Global Fund and President's Malaria Initiative is providing...Full Text Available
Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies were differentiated by PCR-based sequencing of the borrelial flagellin gene. To evaluate the usefulness of KingFisher"T"M magnetic particle processor in PCR product purification, borrelia PCR products were purified with KingFisher"T"M magnetic particle processor prior to cycle sequencing and the quality of the sequence data received was analyzed. KingFisher was found to offer a rapid and reliable alternative for borrelial PCR product purification.
In the present study, we report the occurrence of Lyme's borreliosis in patients from the Brazilian Amazon Region. Borreliosis was investigated by immunohistochemistry and focus floating microscopy for Borrelia burgdorferi in skin biopsy samples from 22 patients with both clinical and histopathology evidences compatible with Erythema Migrans. Spirochetes were detected by specific immunohistochemistry and focus floating microscopy for B. burgdorferi in samples from five patients. Clinical cure of the cutaneous lesions was observed in all the patients after treatment with doxycycline regimen as proposed by the Center Disease Control guidelines. A limitation of our study was the fact that we were not able to isolate and culture these organisms. These are the first known Brazilian cases of bor...
Iguanian lizards form a diverse clade whose members have been the focus of many comparative studies of ecology, behavior, and evolution. Despite the importance of phylogeny to such studies, interrelationships among many iguanian clades remain uncertain. Within the Old World clade Acrodonta, Agamidae is sometimes found to be paraphyletic with respect to Chamaeleonidae, and recent molecular studies have produced conflicting results for many major clades. Within the largely New World clade Pleurodonta, relationships among the 12 currently recognized major subclades (mostly ranked as families) have been largely unresolved or poorly supported in previous studies. To clarify iguanian evolutionary history, we first infer phylogenies using concatenated maximum-likelihood (ML) and Bayesian analyses of DNA sequence data from 29 nuclear protein-coding genes for 47 iguanian and 29 outgroup taxa. We then estimate a relaxed-clock Bayesian chronogram for iguanians using BEAST. All three methods ...