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Congratulations on the completion of your project that was supported by The Rufford Small Grants
Foundation.
We ask all grant recipients to complete a Final Report Form that helps us to gauge the success of our grant giving. We understand that projects often do not follow the predicted course but knowledge of your experiences is valuable to us and others who may be undertaking similar work. Please be as honest as you can in answering the questions – remember that negative experiences are just as valuable as positive ones if they help others to learn from them.
Please complete the form in English and be as clear and concise as you can. We will ask for further information if required. If you have any other materials produced by the project, particularly a few relevant photographs, please send these to us separately.
Please submit your final report to jane@rufford.org
.
Thank you for your help.
Josh Cole, Grants Director
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Your name Kevin Njabo
Project title
RSG reference
Correlating vectors and disease in the rainforest of Cameroon using molecular data and remote sensing
8066-2
Reporting period August-September 2010
Amount of grant £6000
Your email address kynjabo@hotmail.com
Date of this report April 15 2011.

1. Please indicate the level of achievement of the project’s original objectives and include any relevant comments on factors affecting this.
Objective
Training to local students and field assistants
Not achieved
Partially achieved
X
Fully achieved Comments
We trained two students/field assistants from Cameroon (Eric and Ivo), and a graduate student from University of
California, Davis (Jenny Carlson). One of the students (Eric) just secured a grant to continue his research in the
Department of Ecology, Faculty of
Science, Charles University in Prague. ID and analyses of the samples are currently being done by the graduate student of UC Davis. There is however need to continue with training in mosquito ID and mounting of specimens.
We anticipate continuing with the project to fully master techniques
Intensive field sampling (trapping of vectors with appropriate trapping techniques and preparation of voucher samples
X
Estimate haemosporidian parasites these vectors avian within
Examine the bioclimatic and remote sensing variables
X
X
About 3000 mosquitoes were collected during this season and some voucher samples were pinned and stored at the
UCLA/IRTC in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Sites in the north were not sampled because team was involved in a car accident with two members having arm fractures.
Additional sampling is therefore needed for those sites for complete spatial range of species and parasite prevalence in
Cameroon
Species from 4 culicidae genera.
Coquillettidia, Culex, Aedes, and
Mansonia were found to be major vectors of avian Malaria in the lowland forests of Cameroon. Coquillettidia and
Culex spp. had the highest infection rates of all the samples screened and were mostly ornithophilic. Manuscript published in Molecular Ecology (Njabo et
al. 2011)
Plasmodium strain from mosquitoes compared to those isolated from birds from same localities. Applying a species distribution model (MaxEnt) to predict the distribution of avian Plasmodium throughout West Africa based on point localities in Cameroon and

environmental variables. A potential geographic distribution map of avian
Plasmodium based on Maxent modelling is shown in Figure. As stated above, we still need to sample areas in the northern part of the country to confirm presence of Plasmodium in target species and to validate the model.
Parasites have now been so far linked to
21 different sites within the sampling seasons. At least 35 presence sites required for effective modelling.
Vector identification and blood meal analyses through PCR
X A set of morphological keys now available at the International Research and training Centre in Yaoundé to serve as reference to other researchers and students. This will be very helpful in identification and training. A stereo
Remote sensing modeling (based of previous results) to identify regions of mature forest and human disturbed areas
X microscope is also available for practical purposes, courtesy of Dr Anton Cornel.
However, more practical training and practice needed to refine methods.
Ongoing. New data being added to produce vegetation maps and prevalence data based on partial results.
We however have to continue with sampling for further ground-truthing at predicted sites needed to refine model
(especially in the northern regions of the country)
2. Please explain any unforeseen difficulties that arose during the project and how these were tackled (if relevant).
Our biggest hurdle during this sampling season was the car accident where two members of our team had to be hospitalised for fractures. The team however continued with sampling around
Nsimalen and Sanaga River and could not get to the northern areas of the country. As with last sampling season also, field work was more expensive than anticipated due to the continuous decline of the dollar with respect to the local CFA francs (pegged to the Euro). Additionally, local inhabitants
(in Sanaga River) were not receptive to the project as they required we pay for entry, use of land, chairs, and security of our equipment. We however readjusted our budgets and got additional help from UCLA Centre for Tropical Research. Collecting mosquitoes is always good for local people but it’s difficult to explain that we are not providing a cure for malaria, the main scourge in the region.
However, this project raises a lot of awareness on malaria treatment and control.

3. Briefly describe the three most important outcomes of your project.
 From two sampling seasons, we have collected over 13,000 mosquitoes of over 24 species and screened over 4,000 for avian Plasmodium. Our preliminary results show that species from four culicidae genera, Coquillettidia, Culex, Aedes, and Mansonia, to be major vectors of avian Malaria in the lowland forests of Cameroon. Coquillettidia and Culex spp. are considerably more infected than the others and mostly ornithophilic. With additional sampling, these results would be then overlapped with the predicted potential distributions of avian Plasmodium parasites produced with Maxent using the various environmental predictor sets at which infected birds with similar strains are detected. We have published two manuscripts in peer reviewed journals (Malaria Journal and Molecular Ecology) as a result of this work. The manuscripts are
Kevin Y Njabo, Anthony J. Cornel, Camille Bonneaud, Erin Toffelmier, R.N.M. Sehgal, G.
Valkiunas, Andrew F. Russell and T.B. Smith. 2011. Non-specific Patterns of Vector, Host and Avian Malaria Parasite Associations in a Central African Rainforest. Molecular
Ecology 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04904.x
Kevin Y Njabo, Anthony J. Cornel, R.N.M. Sehgal, Loiseau C, W. Buermann, R. Harrigan, J.
Pollinger, G. Valkiunas, and T.B. Smith. 2009. Coquillettidia (Culicidae, Diptera) mosquitoes are natural vectors of avian malaria in Africa. Malaria Journal 8:193 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-8-193
 Two young African scientists (students) and a graduate student from University of California,
Davis have been trained in vector identification and trapping techniques including a technician from the Johns Hopkins laboratory in Yaoundé who partially participated in the field work during the first sampling season.
 Our work is getting greater publicity and we are in the process of developing field expeditions with Wild Ventures (www.WildVenture.co.uk/expeditions.html) to attract volunteers assuming that the expeditions would be run separately. We hope additional funding will help in setting this up.
4. Briefly describe the involvement of local communities and how they have benefitted from the project (if relevant).
 We continue to raise local awareness in areas where we sample and local villagers’ are briefed (through the village Chiefs in areas visited) in simple sanitation techniques, early reporting of disease outbreaks and how to get impregnated mosquito bed-nets from the government services. Additionally we hope the expeditions will give temporal employment for local community members and more students will be trained in vector ID and
Plasmodium research, especially with the potential collaboration from University of
Michigan (see below).
5. Are there any plans to continue this work?
Yes, we have been contacted by Wild Venture to get volunteers for this project and for the project to be included in their website. There is also the potential to collaborate with the University of
Michigan in studying the phylogeographic histories and local adaptation in A. gambiae in this area.
This project aims to reconstruct the phylogeographic history of A. gambiae in Cameroon. More sites

therefore need to be sampled to in order to improve our ability to predict areas prevalence of avian malaria and spatial distribution of the target vectors as well as along latitudinal gradients, encompassing the four major ecozones. We plan to sample tropical dry, Adamaoua highlands, and western highlands, Central Plateau, and Atlantic Coast. With more data, we will evaluate the compiled locations of confirmed avian malaria-positive samples and their habitat characteristics using several remote sensing and bioclimatic variables already compiled for Central Africa. There is a very strong potential for our collaboration with Wild Venture to raise more awareness of this project and increase volunteer participation. As earlier stated, at least 35 point localities are needed for the model to produce consistent results.
6. How do you plan to share the results of your work with others?
Results from sample analyses will be shared with our established network of global researchers through BirdLife International Important Bird Areas program and published in peer-reviewed journals. We have already published two manuscripts in peer reviewed journals (Malaria Journal and Molecular Ecology) as a result of this work, and all our sequence data have been submitted to
Genbank.
7. Timescale: Over what period was the RSG used? How does this compare to the anticipated or actual length of the project?
The RSG was used for 6 weeks (August 20-September 30 2010). We initially anticipated 60 days of field work and we based our calculations at 1US$ to FCFA 500. Due the fall of the US Dollar and GBP with respect to the local CFA Franc (pegged to the Euro), payments for services automatically increased, although we attempted to stay within budget. Additionally, the car accident hampered surveys considerably. We have however maximized our field efforts given the budgetary constraints and our results have now been published.
8. Budget: Please provide a breakdown of budgeted versus actual expenditure and the reasons for any differences. All figures should be in £ sterling, indicating the local exchange rate used. (Local exchange rate as of August 2010 is 1GBP = 807.452CFA Francs)
Item
Transportation
Budgeted
Amount
£2500
Actual
Amount
Difference Comments
£2,852.66 £352.66 Air fare cost increased by difference shown. Additionally, cost of extra luggage was not accounted for in initial estimates.
Vehicle maintenance £900 £1100 £200
Lodging £600 £600 £0
Our vehicle was involved in an accident and we had to assist in repairing the vehicle in order to continue with field sampling.
Insurance policies in Cameroon are very unreliable and will never respect any claims. Funds obtained from UCLA helped subsidise this.
We stayed at the IRTC apartments in
Yaoundé and this helped reduce cost

considerably.
Feeding
Principal
Assistants
TOTAL
Field
Local Field guides
£1200
£500
£300
£6000
£1200
£500
£334.39
£0
£0
£34.39
Feeding included the five of us, two field guides, a camp keeper and occasionally their kids and some other regular visitors from the village. We stayed on budget as much as possible
Our 2 principal assistants stayed with us through out the survey
Field guides were paid 3000FCFA/day
(£3.72) and that translates to £334.39
£6587.05 £587.05 due to exchange currency rates
9. Looking ahead, what do you feel are the important next steps?
Continue the work with Wild Venture to get volunteers for this project and make it perennial.
Attempt to extend the project to cover other regions of Cameroon, especially the northern and
Adamawa regions. Through predicting modelling, other areas in tropical West Africa could be tested if possible. Complete knowledge of spatial distribution of these ornithophilic species within the subregion and parasite prevalence with respect to land usage are important next steps for this project
10. Did you use the RSGF logo in any materials produced in relation to this project? Did the RSGF receive any publicity during the course of your work?
Yes. Two manuscripts in peer reviewed journals (Malaria Journal and Molecular Ecology) as a result of this work (see item 3 above). RSGF was acknowledged in these publications. We also plan to attend the International Workshop on "Malaria and Related Haemosporidian Parasites of Wildlife," which will be held Monday August 1st through Thursday August 4th, 2011, at the National
Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, West Virginia to present this work.
11. Any other comments?
This study has shown that mosquitoes belonging to four genera (Aedes, Coquillettidia, Culex, and
Mansonia) were infected with twenty-two parasite lineages (18 Plasmodium spp. and 4
Haemoproteus spp.). Presence of Plasmodium sporozoites in salivary glands of Coquillettidia aurites further established these mosquitoes as likely vectors. Occurrence of parasite lineages differed significantly among genera, as well as their probability of being infected with malaria across species and sites. Approximately one-third of these lineages were previously detected in other avian host species from the region, indicating that vertebrate host sharing is a common feature and that avian
Plasmodium spp. vector breadth does not always accompany vertebrate-host breadth. These vectors therefore likely represents a threat of colonising novel hosts if introduced into new areas and should warrant more attention when managing the welfare of isolated and naive hosts.