Experimental transmission of Plasmodium malariae to Anopheles gambiae.

Our current knowledge of the clinical burden, biology, and transmission of Plasmodium malariae is extremely scarce. To start addressing some of those questions, we experimentally infected Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes with fresh P. malariae isolates obtained from asymptomatic individuals in Lambarene, Gabon. The proportion of mosquitoes infected via direct membrane feeding assay with either P. malariae mono-infections (16%; 19/121) or co-infections (28%; 31/112) was higher after serum replacement compared to parallel groups without serum replacement (4%, 4/102; and 4%, 2/45; p<0.01 respectively). Our results show that isolates from asymptomatic carriers can be used for experimental studies of P. malariae transmission.