Background: Blood-feeding patterns of mosquitoes are crucial for incriminating malaria vectors. However, little\r\ninformation is available on the host preferences of Anopheles mosquitoes in Bangladesh. Therefore, the objective of\r\nthe present study was to determine the hematophagic tendencies of the anophelines inhabiting a malariaendemic\r\narea of Bangladesh.\r\nMethods: Adult Anopheles mosquitoes were collected using light traps (LTs), pyrethrum spray (PS), and human bait\r\n(HB) from a malaria-endemic village (Kumari, Bandarban, Bangladesh) during the peak months of malaria\r\ntransmission (August-September). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)\r\nwere performed to identify the host blood meals of Anopheles mosquitoes.\r\nResults: In total, 2456 female anopheline mosquitoes representing 21 species were collected from the study area.\r\nAnopheles vagus Doenitz (35.71%) was the dominant species followed by An. philippinensis Ludlow (26.67%) and An.\r\nminimus s.l. Theobald (5.78%). All species were collected by LTs set indoors (n = 1094), 19 species were from\r\noutdoors (n = 784), whereas, six by PS (n = 549) and four species by HB (n = 29). Anopheline species composition\r\nsignificantly differed between every possible combination of the three collection methods (c2 test, P < 0.001). Host\r\nblood meals were successfully detected from 1318 (53.66%) Anopheles samples belonging to 17 species. Values of\r\nthe human blood index (HBI) of anophelines collected from indoors and outdoors were 6.96% and 11.73%,\r\nrespectively. The highest values of HBI were found in An. baimai Baimaii (80%), followed by An. minimus s.l.\r\n(43.64%) and An. annularis Van den Wulp (37.50%). Anopheles baimai (Bi = 0.63) and An. minimus s.l. (Bi = 0.24)\r\nshowed strong relative preferences (Bi) for humans among all hosts (human, bovine, goats/sheep, and others).\r\nAnopheles annularis, An. maculatus s.l. Theobald, and An. pallidus Theobald exhibited opportunistic blood-feeding\r\nbehavior, in that they fed on either humans or animals, depending on whichever was accessible. The remaining 12\r\nspecies preferred bovines as hosts.
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