Going beyond personal protection against mosquito bites to eliminate malaria transmission: Population suppression of malaria vectors that exploit both human and animal blood

Protecting individuals and households against mosquito bites with long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) or indoor residual spraying (IRS) can suppress entire populations of unusually efficient malaria vector species that predominantly feed indoors upon humans. Mosquitoes which usually feed upon animals are less reliant upon human blood, so they are far less vulnerable to population suppression effects of such human-targeted insecticidal measures. Fortunately, the dozens of mosquito species which primarily feed upon animals are also relatively inefficient vectors of malaria, so personal protection against mosquito bites may be sufficient to eliminate transmission. However, a handful of mosquito species are particularly problematic vectors of residual malaria transmission, because they feed readily upon both humans and animals. These unusual vectors feed often enough upon humans to be potent malaria vectors, but also often enough upon animals to evade population control with LLINs, IRS or any other insecticidal personal protection measure targeted only to humans. Anopheles arabiensis and An. coluzzii in Africa, An. darlingi in South America and An. farauti in Oceania, as well as An. culicifacies species E, An. fluviatilis species S, An. lesteri and An. minimus in Asia, all feed readily upon either humans or animals, and collectively mediate residual malaria transmission across most of the tropics. Eliminating malaria transmission by vectors exhibiting such dual host preferences will require aggressive mosquito population abatement, rather than just personal protection of humans. Population suppression of even these particularly troublesome vectors is achievable with a variety of existing vector control technologies that remain underdeveloped or underexploited.