Variance partitioning reveals contrasting random effect contributions to the density and species composition of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes in Western Burkina Faso
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Spatial-temporal variation exists in the density and species composition of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which will in turn influence the transmission of the disease. While there has been extensive research on seasonality and other main drivers of the vector populations, the heterogeneity partitioned as random effects at various spatial-temporal scales is just as
important but has not attracted the same attention.
Methods
To investigate the relative contributions of the between-house, between-village, and between year variations, as well as other house-level covariates such as inhabitant number and bed net usage on vector density and species composition, intensive Pyrethroid Spray Catches (PSC) sampling was conducted across a 60-month period between 2012-2019 from four villages in the Sudano-Sahelian region of Burkina Faso.
Results
For density, measured by female Anopheles gambiae s.l. counts, our modelling showed that the between-house variation was the largest variance component, followed by the between year then between-village variation, after accounting for seasonality and other covariates.
Density increased with the number of inhabitants within a household but was uncorrelated with bed net presence. A subset of female mosquitoes was genotyped for species identification, and the composition of An. coluzzii and An. gambiae, the two dominant vectors in the region, varied markedly across villages without an overall trend. The between-village variance contributed up to 76% of the total random variation in species composition, followed by the between-year variance. The between-house variation was statistically insignificant. Neither household size nor bed net usage had any impact on species composition.
Conclusions
Interestingly, the between-house component of variation was the largest contributor when measuring mosquito density, but it was the least important for species composition. For between-village variation the converse was found. Together with the baseline entomological
data, the variance components help parameterise potential field trials for novel vector control
programmes and monitoring.
Spatial-temporal variation exists in the density and species composition of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which will in turn influence the transmission of the disease. While there has been extensive research on seasonality and other main drivers of the vector populations, the heterogeneity partitioned as random effects at various spatial-temporal scales is just as
important but has not attracted the same attention.
Methods
To investigate the relative contributions of the between-house, between-village, and between year variations, as well as other house-level covariates such as inhabitant number and bed net usage on vector density and species composition, intensive Pyrethroid Spray Catches (PSC) sampling was conducted across a 60-month period between 2012-2019 from four villages in the Sudano-Sahelian region of Burkina Faso.
Results
For density, measured by female Anopheles gambiae s.l. counts, our modelling showed that the between-house variation was the largest variance component, followed by the between year then between-village variation, after accounting for seasonality and other covariates.
Density increased with the number of inhabitants within a household but was uncorrelated with bed net presence. A subset of female mosquitoes was genotyped for species identification, and the composition of An. coluzzii and An. gambiae, the two dominant vectors in the region, varied markedly across villages without an overall trend. The between-village variance contributed up to 76% of the total random variation in species composition, followed by the between-year variance. The between-house variation was statistically insignificant. Neither household size nor bed net usage had any impact on species composition.
Conclusions
Interestingly, the between-house component of variation was the largest contributor when measuring mosquito density, but it was the least important for species composition. For between-village variation the converse was found. Together with the baseline entomological
data, the variance components help parameterise potential field trials for novel vector control
programmes and monitoring.
Date Issued
2026-12-01
Date Acceptance
2026-04-05
Citation
Parasites and Vectors, 2026, 19 (1)
ISSN
1756-3305
Publisher
BMC
Journal / Book Title
Parasites and Vectors
Volume
19
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
License URL
Identifier
10.1186/s13071-026-07406-0
Subjects
Anopheles gambiae
Malaria
Vector density
Species composition
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 235
Date Publish Online
2026-04-18