The development rate of parasites and pathogens within vectors typically increases with temperature. Accordingly, transmission intensity is generally assumed to be higher under warmer conditions. However, development is only one component of parasite/pathogen life history and there has been little research exploring the temperature sensitivity of other traits that contribute to transmission int...

The vectorial capacity of Biomphalaria pfeifferi from Ndiangue, Senegal, was investigated with an allopatric isolate of Schistosoma mansoni from Nkolbisson, Cameroon. The snail infection rate after exposure to a single miracidium per snail (MD1) was 56. 3 %, and 91.6%, for snails exposed to 5 miracidia per snail (MD5). The minimum pre-patent period was 21 days. The mean total cercarial producti...

Anopheles mosquitoes are major vectors of human malaria in Africa. Large variation exists in the ability of mosquitoes to serve as vectors and to transmit malaria parasites, but the molecular mechanisms that determine vectorial capacity remain poorly understood. We report that the hemocyte-specific complement-like protein TEP1 from the mosquito Anopheles gambiae binds to and mediates killing of...

The microbiota of Anopheles mosquitoes interferes with mosquito infection by Plasmodium and influences mosquito fitness, therefore affecting vectorial capacity. This natural barrier to malaria transmission has been regarded with growing interest in the last 20 years, as it may be a source of new transmission-blocking strategies. The last decade has seen tremendous progress in the functional cha...

Anophelism without malaria has long been recognized. In large irrigation projects, such as that around Niono, Mali, villages in irrigated areas sometimes have more anopheline vectors of malaria than adjacent nonirrigated villages, but overall malaria prevalence is substantially less. One hypothesized explanation for this is high anopheline densities lead to smaller adults, who do not live so lo...

We argue that using more natural blood feeding methods to study mosquito vector competence for dengue viruses and exploring the effect of viral infection on other mosquito life-history traits that influence vectorial capacity will significantly advance our understanding of dengue epidemiology.