Impact of Ecological and Climatic Changes on Vectors of Malaria in Four North-Eastern States of India

摘要

A study was conducted during 2010-2013 to assess the impact of climatic and ecological changes on the abundance of the Anopheline species in four endemic North-Eastern states of India namely Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Sikkim. Districts and villageswere selected on the basis of change in land use pattern using remote sensing classification of images with gap of atleast 6 years and availability of Anophelines species surveys carried out before 2000. Seven entomological and epidemiological surveys in pre and post monsoon seasons were conducted in 287 villages of 16 districts. Ecological and climatic changes like deforestation, development of irrigation channels, change in crop pattern, use of pesticides in tea gardens and increase in annual mean temperature was observed. A total of 29,059 specimens of 29 Anopheline species were collected from entire study area. Pair-wise comparison of An. culicifacies and An. minimus using Chi square with Yates correction (x2= 11443.451, p <0.001) was statistically significant indicating that An. culicifacies is replacing An. minimus. Among non vector species An. ahomi, An. aitkenii, An. benglalensis, An. insulaeflorum, An. lindsayi and An. umbrosus were not recorded in the current surveys whereas species namelyAn. turkhudi, An. karwari, An. theobaldi, An. dthali, An. jamesii, An. kochi, An. nivipes, An. subpictus An. nilgiricus, An. psuedowillmori reported for the first time in these areas. There is an urgent need to establish the role of An. culicifacies as malaria vector to facilitate the policymakers to update malaria control strategies in NE states of India.