Influence of Pre-Feeding Starvation Duration on the Blood-Feeding Success of Anopheles cracens Under Laboratory Conditions

Abstract

Background: Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites, is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected Anophe­les mosquitoes. Laboratory-reared Anopheles mosquitoes play a crucial role in advancing research aimed at eliminating malaria transmission, particularly zoonotic malaria caused by Plasmodium knowlesi in Malaysia. Anopheles cracens, an incriminated vector for P. knowlesi, remains relatively underexplored in laboratory-based vector research and still lacks a clearly defined optimal starvation duration for its blood feeding. This study assessed the length of starvation duration against the female mosquito feeding rate, in order to determine the optimal starvation duration.
Methods: The mosquitoes were subjected to various starvation durations (6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 hours) before blood feeding. All other key parameters were kept constant. For each starvation duration, 25 female An. cracens mosquitoes were exposed to the blood meal, and the experiment was repeated a total of three times (n= 75 for each starvation dura­tion).
Results: The results showed a positive association between starvation duration and feeding rate, with longer starvation durations leading to higher feeding rates. The 16-hour starvation group achieved the highest feeding rate at 68% (68–72%). However, no statistically significant differences were observed among the groups due to high variability in the data.
Conclusion: In conclusion, a positive trend between starvation duration and feeding success was observed. Further studies with larger sample sizes and controlled physiological states will enable more precise determination of the opti­mal starvation threshold and its influence on P. knowlesi infection rates under laboratory conditions.