Malaria vectors in the municipality of Serra do Navio, State of Amapá, Amazon Region, Brazil

Minist?rio da Sa?de. Funda??o Nacional de Sa?de. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Bel?m, PA, Brasil. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Washington, DC, USA. Minist?rio da Sa?de. Funda??o Nacional de Sa?de. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Bel?m, PA, Brasil. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases. Pathogen Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Unit. London, UK. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases. Pathogen Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Unit. London, UK. We conducted a survey to determine the vectors of malaria in six localities of Serra do Navio municipality, State of Amap?, from 1990 to 1991. Malaria infection rates of 29.3%, 6.2% and 20.4% were detected by human blood smears in Col?nia ?gua Branca, Porto Terezinha and Arrependido, respectively. There was no malaria infection detected in Serra do Navio. Fifteen species were identified among 3,053 anopheline mosquitoes collected by human bait and 64.4% were identified as Anopheles albitarsis s.l., 16.7% An. braziliensis, 9.5% An. nuneztovari and 5.8% An. triannulatus. An. darlingi, the main vector of malaria in the Amazon region of Brazil, was scare. Using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a total positive rate of 0.8% (23/2876) was found for six species: fifteen An. albitarsis s.l., four An. nuneztovari, and one of each: An. braziliensis, An. triannulatus, An. oswaldoi and An. rangeli. Nine of 23 positive mosquitoes were infected with Plasmodium malariae, eight with P. vivax VK210, three with P. vivax VK247 and three with P. falciparum. Since An. albitarsis s.l. was collected feeding on humans, was present in the highest density and was positive by ELISA for malaria sporozoites, it probably plays an important role in malaria transmission in this area.