Background Current tools and strategies are not sufficient to reliably address threats and outbreaks of arboviruses including Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Hence there is a growing public health challenge to identify the best new control tools to use against the vector Aedes aegypti . In this study, we investigated Ae . aegypti sugar feeding strategies in Bamako, Mali, to determine if this species can be controlled effectively using attractive toxic sugar baits (ATSB). Methodology We determined the relative attraction of Ae . aegypti males and females to a variety of sugar sources including flowers, fruits, seedpods, and honeydew in the laboratory and using plant-baited traps in the field. Next, we observed the rhythm of blood feeding versus sugar feeding activity of Ae . aegypti in vegetation and in open areas. Finally, we studied the effectiveness of spraying vegetation with ATSB on Ae . aegypti in sugar rich (lush vegetation) and in sugar poor (sparse vegetation) urban environments. Principal findings Male and female laboratory sugar feeding rates within 24 h, on 8 of 16 plants offered were over 80%. The survival rates of mosquitoes on several plant sources were nearly as long as that of controls maintained on sucrose solution. In the field, females were highly attracted to 11 of 20 sugar sources, and 8 of these were attractive to males. Peak periods of host attraction for blood-feeding and sugar feeding in open areas were nearly identical and occurred shortly after sunrise and around sunset. In shaded areas, the first sugar-seeking peak occurred between 11:30 and 12:30 while the second was from 16:30 to 17:30. In a 50-day field trial, ATSB significantly reduced mean numbers of landing / biting female Ae . aegypti in the two types of vegetation. At sugar poor sites, the mean pre-treatment catch of 20.51 females on day 14 was reduced 70-fold to 0.29 on day 50. At sugar rich sites, the mean pre-treatment catch of 32.46 females on day 14 was reduced 10-fold to a mean of 3.20 females on day 50. Conclusions This is the first study to show how the vector Ae . aegypti depends on environmental resources of sugar for feeding and survival. The demonstration that Ae . aegypti populations rapidly collapsed after ATSB treatment, in both sugar rich and sugar poor environments, is strong evidence that Ae . aegypti is sugar-feeding frequently. Indeed, this study clearly demonstrates that Ae . aegypti mosq...

BackgroundA neglected aspect of alien invasive plant species is their influence on mosquito vector ecology and malaria transmission. Invasive plants that are highly attractive to Anopheles mosquitoes provide them with sugar that is critical to their survival. The effect on Anopheles mosquito populations was examined through a habitat manipulation experiment that removed the flowering branches of highly attractive Prosopis juliflora from selected villages in Mali, West Africa.MethodsNine villages in the Bandiagara district of Mali were selected, six with flowering Prosopis juliflora, and three without. CDC-UV light traps were used to monitor their Anopheles spp. vector populations, and recorded their species composition, population size, age structure, and sugar feeding status. After 8 days, all of the flowering branches were removed from three villages and trap catches were analysed again.ResultsVillages where flowering branches of the invasive shrub Prosopis juliflora were removed experienced a threefold drop in the older more dangerous Anopheles females. Population density dropped by 69.4% and the species composition shifted from being a mix of three species of the Anopheles gambiae complex to one dominated by Anopheles coluzzii. The proportion of sugar fed females dropped from 73 to 15% and males from 77 to 10%.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates how an invasive plant shrub promotes the malaria parasite transmission capacity of African malaria vector mosquitoes. Proper management of invasive plants could potentially reduce mosquito populations and malaria transmission.

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An ethnopharmacological survey was carried out to collect information on the use of seven medicinal plants in rural areas in the nearby regions of Bamako, Mali. The plants were Opilia celtidifolia, Anthocleista djalonensis, Erythrina senegalensis, Heliotropium indicum, Trichilia emetica, Piliostigma thonningii and Cochlospermum tinctorium About 50 medical indications were reported for the use of these plants in traditional medicine. The most frequent ailments reported were malaria, abdominal pain and dermatitis. The highest number of usages was reported for the treatment of malaria (22%). The majority of the remedies were prepared from freshly collected plant material from the wild and from a single species only. They were mainly taken orally, but some applications were prepared with a mixture of plants or ingredients such as honey, sugar, salt, ginger and pepper. Decoction of the leaves was the main form of preparation (65%) and leaf powder was mostly used for the preparation of infusions (13%). The part of the plants most frequently used was the leaves. There was a high degree of informant consensus for the species and their medicinal indications between the healers interviewed.The results of this study showed that people are still dependent on medicinal plants in these rural areas of Mali.

Au Mali, le Malarial 5 qui est un Médicament Traditionnel Amélioré (MTA) produit en partie à base de feuilles de Lippia chevalieri est utilisé pour traiter les symptômes du paludisme simple. Les feuilles de Lippia chevalieri cultivé peuvent être utilisées pour la préparation des MTA lorsqu'elles sont de qualité. La présente étude portée sur le contrôle physicochimique a montré que les feuilles de Lippia chevalieri cultivé ont des teneurs en eau inférieures à 10%, celles des cendres totales un peu élevées et celles des cendres insolubles dans l'acide chlorhydriques à 10% faibles. Les meilleurs rendements des extractions sont obtenus par l'eau par infusion et par décoction. Plusieurs groupes chimiques comprenant entre autres des caroténoïdes, des coumarines, des mucilages, des flavonoïdes ont été révélés.