Impact of land-use on malaria transmission in the Plateau region, southeastern Benin

BACKGROUND: The goal of the study is to investigate if local agricultural practices have an impact on malaria transmission in four villages located in the same geographical area within a radius of 15 kilometers. Among the villages, one (Itassoumba) is characterized by the presence of a large market garden and fishpond basins, the three others (Itakpako, Djohounkollé and Ko-koumolou) are characterized by traditional food-producing agriculture. METHODS: Malaria transmission was evaluated using human-landing catches, both indoors and outdoors, two nights per month for 12 months. Field collected females An. gambiae s.l. were exposed for 1 hour to 0.75% permethrin and 0.05% deltamethrin using WHO insecticide susceptibility test kits and procedures. The presence of the kdr mutation was analyzed by PCR. RESULTS: Anopheles gambiae s.s form M (93.65%), was identified as the main malaria vector. Its susceptibility level to pyrethroids was the same (p > 0.05) in all villages. kdr mutation frequencies are 81.08 in Itakpako, 85 in Itassoumba, 79.73 in Djohounkollé and 86.84 in Ko-Koumolou (p = 0.63). The entomological inoculation rate ranged from 9.62 to 21.65 infected bites of An. gambiae per human per year in Djohounkollé, Itakpako and Ko-Koumolou against 1159.62 in Itassoumba (p