ArticleMalaria journal2025
Evaluating the biological quality of mass-reared Anopheles arabiensis males irradiated as pupae or as adults.
Article in Malaria journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sterile Insect Technique: Investigating the Impact of Larval Diet and Ionizing Radiation on the Mosquito Bacterial Microbiota.Insects · 2026Article
- Longevity as a quality control metric for male Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae): does test design matter?Journal of insect science (Online) · 2026Article
- Effects of chilling, fluorescent dust marking, and X-ray irradiation on the quality of male Anopheles arabiensis for sterile insect technique applications.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Advances in male sex separation for the support of mosquito control programs.Frontiers in insect science · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe success of a sterile insect technique programme to control target mosquito populations depends on producing high-quality sterile males that can compete with wild males to inseminate wild females, to consequently inhibit procreation. To succeed, the released males require high biological quality. The quality of laboratory-reared, sterile males can be affected by the rearing conditions, handling, transportation, and irradiation. Limiting the cumulative damage caused by all these processes is key to maintain sterile male performance in the field once released. The ideal life stage to irradiate Anopheles arabiensis males is still an important question for this species. This study aims to assess the dose response of irradiated males at pupal versus adult stages and use quality control (QC) parameters to assess the feasibility and possible advantages of shifting to adult irradiation in this species.
methodsLaboratory reared An. arabiensis males were irradiated as late-stage pupae or as adults at varying doses to compare the radiosensitivity in both developmental stages. Males irradiated at fully sterilizing doses were further subjected to quality control tests to compare the quality of males irradiated at adult versus pupae stages. The QC parameters tested included flight ability, longevity and mating competitiveness.
resultsThe results show that adults do not require more radiation dose to achieve the target sterility, and females are more radiosensitive than males. Longevity, flight ability and mating competitiveness were improved significantly in males irradiated as adults compared to that of males irradiated as pupae.
conclusionsGiven the challenges in synchronizing pupation in a mass rearing setting and achieving a homogenous age (i.e. late-stage pupae) of collected pupae in this species, as well as these findings on the overall improvement of sterile male quality in the males irradiated as adults, this report provides a strong argument for irradiation protocols to shift towards adult stage irradiation in SIT programmes against An. arabiensis.
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