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Background  Determining the host feeding patterns of mosquitoes by identifying the origin of their blood-meals is an important part of understanding the role of vector species in current and future disease transmission cycles. Collecting large numbers of blood-fed mosquitoes from the field is difficult, therefore it is important to maximise the information obtained from each specimen. This study aimed to use mosquito genome sequence to identify the species within  Anopheles maculipennis  sensu lato ( An. maculipennis  s.l.), identify the vertebrate hosts of field-caught blood-fed  An. maculipennis  s.l. , and to test for the presence of myxoma virus ( Poxviridae , genus  Leporipoxvirus ) in specimens found to have fed on the European rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ).    Methods  Blood-fed  An. maculipennis  s.l. were collected from resting sites at Elmley Nature Reserve, Kent, between June and September 2013. Hosts that  An. maculipennis  s.l. had fed on were determined by a PCR-sequencing approach based on the partial amplification of the mitochondrial  cytochrome C oxidase subunit I  gene. Mosquitoes were then identified to species by sequencing a region of the  internal transcribed spacer-2 . DNA extracts from all mosquitoes identified as having fed on rabbits were subsequently screened using PCR for the presence of myxoma virus.    Results  A total of 94 blood-fed  Anopheles maculipennis  s.l. were collected, of which 43 (46 %) provided positive blood-meal identification results. Thirty-six of these specimens were identified as  Anopheles atroparvus , which had fed on rabbit ( n  = 33, 92 %) and cattle ( n  = 3, 8 %). Seven mosquitoes were identified as  Anopheles messeae,  which had fed on cattle ( n  = 6, 86 %) and dog ( n  = 1, 14 %). Of the 33  An. atroparvus  that contained rabbit blood, nine (27 %) were positive for myxoma virus.    Conclusions  Results demonstrate that a single DNA extract from a blood-fed mosquito can be successfully used for molecular identification of members of the  An. maculipennis  complex, blood-meal identification, and for the targeted detection of a myxoma virus. This study shows that  An. atroparvus  has a strong feeding preference for both healthy and myxoma-infected rabbits, providing evidence that this species may play a significant role in the transmission of myxomatosis among wild rabbit populations in the United Kingdom (UK).

parasites and vectors

Molecular species identification, host preference and detection of myxoma virus in the Anopheles maculipennis complex (Diptera: Culicidae) in southern England, UK