Habitat and Seasonality Affect Mosquito Community Composition in the West Region of Cameroon
Marie Paul Audrey Mayi,
Roland Bamou,
Borel Djiappi-Tchamen,
Albin Fontaine,
Claire L. Jeffries,
Thomas Walker,
Christophe Antonio-Nkondjio,
Anthony John Cornel,
Timoléon Tchuinkam
Affiliations
Marie Paul Audrey Mayi
Vector Borne Diseases Laboratory of the Research Unit of Biology and Applied Ecology (VBID-RUBAE), Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Science of the University of Dschang, P.O. Box 067 Dschang, Cameroon
Roland Bamou
Vector Borne Diseases Laboratory of the Research Unit of Biology and Applied Ecology (VBID-RUBAE), Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Science of the University of Dschang, P.O. Box 067 Dschang, Cameroon
Borel Djiappi-Tchamen
Vector Borne Diseases Laboratory of the Research Unit of Biology and Applied Ecology (VBID-RUBAE), Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Science of the University of Dschang, P.O. Box 067 Dschang, Cameroon
Albin Fontaine
Unité Parasitologie et Entomologie, Département Microbiologie et maladies infectieuses, Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées (IRBA), 19-21 Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13005 Marseille, France
Claire L. Jeffries
Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
Thomas Walker
Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
Christophe Antonio-Nkondjio
Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Paludisme, Organisation de Coordination pour la lutte Contre les Endémies en Afrique Centrale (OCEAC), P.O. Box 288 Yaoundé, Cameroon
Anthony John Cornel
Department of Entomology and Nematology, Mosquito Control Research Laboratory, University of California at Davis, Parlier, CA 93648, USA
Timoléon Tchuinkam
Vector Borne Diseases Laboratory of the Research Unit of Biology and Applied Ecology (VBID-RUBAE), Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Science of the University of Dschang, P.O. Box 067 Dschang, Cameroon
To identify potential sylvatic, urban and bridge-vectors that can be involved in current or future virus spillover from wild to more urbanised areas, entomological field surveys were conducted in rural, peri-urban and urban areas spanning the rainy and dry seasons in western Cameroon. A total of 2650 mosquitoes belonging to 37 species and eight genera were collected. Mosquito species richness was significantly influenced by the specific combination of the habitat type and the season. The highest species richness was found in the peri-urban area (S = 30, Chao1 = 121 ± 50.63, ACE = 51.97 ± 3.88) during the dry season (S = 28, Chao1 = 64 ± 25.7, ACE = 38.33 ± 3.1). Aedes (Ae.) africanus and Culex (Cx.) moucheti were only found in the rural and peri-urban areas, while Cx. pipiens s.l. and Ae. aegypti were only found in the urban area. Cx. (Culiciomyia) spp., Cx. duttoni and Ae. albopictus were caught in the three habitat types. Importantly, approximately 52% of the mosquito species collected in this study have been implicated in the transmission of diverse arboviruses. This entomological survey provides a catalogue of the different mosquito species that may be involved in the transmission of arboviruses. Further investigations are needed to study the vectorial capacity of each mosquito species in arbovirus transmission.
