Profile distribution of juveniles aedes species with references to its physicochemical characteristics of the breeding habitat in urban areas / Muhammad Faiz Madzlan

Dengue fever is an urban vector-borne disease transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Both species lay their eggs in favourable breeding containers either in natural or artificial containers. Aedes surveillance through search and destroy was carried out randomly at 16 localities in central zone of Shah Alam, Malaysia. A minimum of 100 houses were inspected the peridomestic area for Aedes species. The Aedes indices are calculated for each locality and the types of containers found are being categories accordingly. In-situ measurement of selected physical parameters, observation of environmental characteristics and the presence of vegetation are conducted. Mosquito larvae and pupae that were found in different types of containers were brought to the laboratory for identification. Water analysis were conducted to determine water breeding characteristic while larval species identification was conducted to identify the dominant species in Shah Alam. A total of 62 containers with positive breeding were discovered during the survey. Ae. albopictus easily found throughout the localities while plastic container become the most preferences breeding container and paint cans were the favourable breeding container. Seksyen 1 and Seksyen 14 show the highest percentage of BI with 70% and 80% respectively. Based on profile distribution of Aedes habitat, rubber materials were the most efficient for pupae development (Ce: 2.10). As for breeding preference; clear water container with the presence of dead vegetation was the most preferable which were 70.97% and 32.26%, respectively. In term of water volume, most of the species preferred low water volume (59.38%). Consequently, statistical test showed that volume of water, wind velocity and distance from human habitation was statistically significant towards different types of dengue vectors containers. Calcium is considered as the water parameter that attract female Aedes mosquito to lay their eggs and also enhanced the development of Aedes larvae between different dengue risk area (DSA and NDSA) with p-value of 0.033. Essentially, the findings has provided the profile of dengue vectors breeding habitat based on its environmental and water conditions in central zone of Shah Alam. These outcomes provide useful information on Aedes species by container characteristics so as to enable selective elimination of dengue vectors habitat in order to minimize future dengue outbreak.