Assessment of the role of non-insecticide agrochemicals in selecting resistance to insecticides in the principal malaria vector Anopheles gambiae

Chouaïbou is a medical entomologist with research interests in insecticide resistance and vector control. Selection for insecticide resistance in malaria vectors has often been attributed to exposure to chemicals used in production of cash crops but the evidence is largely associative. Chouaïbou will investigate the role of both insecticide and non-insecticide chemicals found in agricultural wetlands in selecting resistance in mosquitoes breeding in these sites. Chouaïbou’s experiments will enable him to determine whether larval survival of environmental toxicants determines the ability of adult mosquitoes to survive insecticide exposure and whether this response is short-lived, potentially a result of the induction of detoxification enzymes, or whether the larval breeding site is an important source of genetic selection for insecticide resistance.

This grant was awarded under the scheme's previous name of Intermediate Fellowships in Public Health and Tropical Medicine.