Identification to cytospecies of the vector of onchocerciasis in the Republic of Niger

Abstract

In order to incriminate the vector that was responsible for onchocerciasis transmission in the Republic of Niger, where WHO have declared that the disease has been eliminated, cytotaxonomic identifications were collated from published and unpublished sources. Data on 1205 cytotaxonomic identifications of members of the Simu lium damnosum complex collected as larvae in the country from 1967 to 1991 showed that, with the exception of five S. damnosum s.str., all identifications were S. sirbanum, which is thus confirmed as the almost exclusive vector in Niger. Some of the main breeding sites are described and illustrated and circumstantial evidence is presented that the form of S. sirbanum commonly found in Niger is zoophilic as well as anthropophilic.