Landscape as regulator of Culicidae diversity and dynamics of Anopheles vectors in rural settlements with malaria cases in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

The structural and functional changes in the landscape caused by human actions presented as a new challenge to the epidemiological surveillance activities in the Brazilian Amazon. This process has formed a new heterogeneous mosaic of natural units and management in the matrix formed by the Amazon rainforest. The absence of effective medical treatments and vaccines for malaria causes the control of the mosquitoes population is the measure capable limiting the pathogens transmission in these areas. In this context, the entomological research is part of the construction of more effective practices for epidemiological surveillance in the Amazon region and the expansion and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The ecological and social conditions in amazon area, susceptible to arbovirus circulation, and protozoa, added the changes made by man in the local landscape, increase the likelihood of infectious human-vector-agent contact. The entomological research presented as a procedure capable of generating information to elucidate these interactions and the Anopheles mosquito behavior against other species of mosquitoes. These investigations will assess the role that other species of the genus Anopheles represent the dynamics of transmission of human malaria, especially in environments outside the home both in areas of intense transmission and in those where they are reported sporadic autochthonous cases. The objective is to investigate the landscape structure as regulator mosquito biodiversity and its association with the dynamics of mosquito populations anopheline vectors in rural areas with settlements in Amazon rainforest. In this context, the project's main question is how the landscape structure, especially the fragmentation of natural forest influence on biodiversity metrics and how this is associated with the dynamics of Plasmodium transmission in rural settlements of the Brazilian Amazon. (AU)