Inoculation protocol for the African malaria vector, Anopheles arabiensis, by means of nano-injection

Inoculation by means of injection has become a prominent bio-manipulation technique. This physical delivery system offers an advantage over other techniques by introducing precise quantities of inoculate into any life stage of an organism. However, this technique is intricate, laborious and requires extensive optimisation. Factors such as the location of injection, age of the organism, injection volume, and nutritional status of the organism prior to injection are variables that will likely differ between species. Bio-manipulation studies have been performed on the major African malaria vector mosquito species, Anopheles gambiae s.s., yet they are still lacking for the closely related vector An. arabiensis. This study established a method of nano-injection procedure for An. arabiensis mosquitoes and found that the highest rate of survival was achieved when 1-day-old mosquitoes, fed on a 10 % sucrose solution prior to injection, were intra-thoracically injected using an inoculation volume of 69 nl.