Lyimo I.N., Keegan S.P., Ranford-Cartwright L.C., Ferguson H.M.
Environmental and Biomedical Thematic Group, Ifakara Health Institute, Ifakara, Tanzania; Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom; Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Lyimo, I.N., Environmental and Biomedical Thematic Group, Ifakara Health Institute, Ifakara, Tanzania, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom; Keegan, S.P., Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom; Ranford-Cartwright, L.C., Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom; Ferguson, H.M., Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
We investigated the fitness consequences of specialization in an organism whose host choice has an immense impact on human health: the African malaria vector Anopheles gambiae s.s. We tested whether this mosquito's specialism on humans can be attributed to the relative fitness benefits of specialist vs. generalist feeding strategies by contrasting their fecundity and survival on human-only and mixed host diets consisting of blood meals from humans and animals. When given only one blood meal, An. gambiae s.s. survived significantly longer on human and bovine blood, than on canine or avian blood. However, when blood fed repeatedly, there was no evidence that the fitness of An. gambiae s.s. fed a human-only diet was greater than those fed generalist diets. This suggests that the adoption of generalist host feeding strategies in An. gambiae s.s. is not constrained by intraspecific variation in the resource quality of blood from other available host species. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2011 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.
disease vector; fecundity; fitness; generalist; hemophagy; host-parasite interaction; life history theory; malaria; mosquito; natural selection; public health; specialist; specialization; survival; trade-off; adaptation; animal; animal food; Anopheles gambiae; article; cattle; dog; feeding behavior; fertility; host parasite interaction; human; physiology; proportional hazards model; species difference; survival; Adaptation, Biological; Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Anopheles gambiae; Cattle; Dogs; Feeding Behavior; Fertility; Host-Parasite Interactions; Humans; Proportional Hazards Models; Species Specificity; Survival Analysis; Animalia; Anopheles gambiae; Aves; Bovinae; Hexapoda