Study of anophelines fauna (Diptera: Culicidae) and their natural infection by plasmodia in the city of Indaial, State of Santa Catarina

• Grant number: 13/05559-6
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: August 01, 2014 - July 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Epidemiology
• Principal researcher: Rosely dos Santos Malafronte
• Grantee: Rosely dos Santos Malafronte
• Home Institution: Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo (IMT). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Carlos Brisola Marcondes ; Julio Cesar de Souza Jr ; Zelinda Maria Braga Hirano

Abstract

The fight against malaria in Santa Catarina in the early twentieth century was characterized mainly by the use of insecticides and manual deletion of bromeliads in regions where the disease was reported. Despite these efforts, some regions continue to report sporadic cases of autochthonous malaria. Our group intends to study the residual malaria in the city of Indaial , located in Vale do Itajaí, where vegetation is characterized by the Atlantic Forest. The data regarding notifications of the imported and very few autochthonous cases in this region are not clear enough, even when the vectors Anopheles cruzii responsible for bromeliad-malaria and Anopheles deaneorum are identified in the municipality. First of all, we will carry out a descriptive study of the Culicidae fauna emphasizing anophelines mosquitoes present in the Atlantic Forest around the city, where monkeys infected by Plasmodium parasites were found, for a period of two years. The hypothesis of "anophelism without malaria" is not discarded and molecular biology techniques can be a useful and efficient tool. From this information and other data previously described, mosquitoes captured in Morro Geisler in Indaial, will identified by taxonomic methodology and subsequent assayed by detection of Plasmodium species. We believe that this first step will be the basis for the developing of other studies for the identification of autochthonous human cases in the Vale of Itajai. (AU)