Evaluating the potential of the sterile insect technique for malaria control: relative fitness and mating compatibility between laboratory colonized and a wild population of Anopheles arabiensis from the Kruger National Park, South Africa

The physiological and reproductive fitness of the MALPAN laboratory strain is not substantially modified with respect to the field population at Malahlapanga. Further, a high degree of mating compatibility between MALPAN and the Malahlapanga population was established based on cross-mating experiments. Lastly, the morphological characteristics of hybrid ovarian polytene chromosomes further support the contention that the MALPAN laboratory colony and the An. arabiensis population at Malahlapanga are genetically homogenous and therefore compatible.It is concluded that the presence of a perennial and isolated population of An. arabiensis at Malahlapanga presents a unique opportunity for assessing the feasibility of SIT as a malaria vector control option. The MALPAN laboratory colony has retained sufficient enough measures of reproductive and physiological fitness to present as a suitable candidate for male sterilization, mass rearing and subsequent mass release of sterile males at Malahlapanga in order to further assess the feasibility of SIT in a field setting.Following approval of a Ministerial Resolution by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) [1], South Africa is now listed as one of four countries in southern Africa (along with Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland) hoping to achieve malaria elimination status by 2015 [2].Malaria vector control in South Africa is primarily based on indoor residual spraying (IRS) of insecticide. Although effective, this strategy has not completely halted malaria transmission in affected regions. This is partly due to the development of insecticide resistance in target populations of the major malaria vectors Anopheles funestus and An. arabiensis [3-5]. As a consequence of the development and spread of insecticide resistance as well as the South African National Department of Health (NDoH) thrust toward malaria elimination, additional strategies are needed to strengthen current vector control interventions.The sterile insect