Geographically extensive larval surveys reveal an unexpected scarcity of primary vector mosquitoes in a region of persistent malaria transmission in western Zambia
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background: The Barotse floodplains of the upper Zambezi River and its tributaries are a highly dynamic environment, with seasonal flooding and transhumance presenting a shifting mosaic of potential larval habitat and human and livestock bloodmeals for malaria vector mosquitoes. However, limited entomological surveillance has been undertaken to characterise the vector community in these floodplains and their environs. Such information is necessary as, despite substantial deployment of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) against Anopheles vectors, malaria transmission persists across Barotseland in Zambia’s Western Province.Methods: Geographically extensive larval surveys were undertaken in two health districts along 102 km of transects, at fine spatial resolution, during a dry season and following the peak of the successive wet season. Larvae were sampled within typical Anopheles flight range of human settlements and identified through genetic sequencing of cytochrome c oxidase I and internal transcribed spacer 2 regions of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. This facilitated detailed comparison of taxon-specific abundance patterns between ecological zones differentiated by hydrological controls.Results: An unexpected paucity of primary vectors was revealed, with An. gambiae s.l. and An. funestus representing < 2% of 995 sequenced anophelines. Potential secondary vectors predominated in the vector community, primarily An. coustani group species and An. squamosus. Whilst the distribution of An. gambiae s.l. in the study area was highly clustered, secondary vector species were ubiquitous across the landscape in both dry and wet seasons, with some taxon-specific relationships between abundance and ecological zones by season.Conclusions: Larval survey results imply that residual transmission of malaria in Barotseland is being mediated predominantly by secondary vector species, whose known tendencies for crepuscular and outdoor biting renders them largely insensitive to prevalent vector control methods (ITNs and IRS). Alternative interventions may be required against this vector community to further reduce transmission. Larviciding is one potential supplementary intervention, although it presents a challenge in extensive wetlands such as those found in the Upper Zambezi catchment. However, the combination of advances in remote sensing of habitats, genetic identification of local vectors, and spatial modelling present a potential opportunity to optimise targeting of aerial spraying in these environments.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".