DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ch206
title: Data from: The potential for fungal biopesticides to reduce malaria transmission under diverse environmental conditions

description: 1.The effectiveness of conventional malaria vector control is being
 threatened by the spread of insecticide resistance. One promising
 alternative to chemicals is the use of naturally-occurring insect-killing
 fungi. Numerous laboratory studies have shown that isolates of fungal
 pathogens such as Beauveria bassiana can infect and kill adult mosquitoes,
 including those resistant to chemical insecticides. 2. Unlike chemical
 insecticides, fungi may take up to a week or more to kill mosquitoes
 following exposure. This slow kill speed can still reduce malaria
 transmission because the malaria parasite itself takes at least eight days
 to complete its development within the mosquito. However, both fungal
 virulence and parasite development rate are strongly
 temperature-dependent, so it is possible that biopesticide efficacy could
 vary across different transmission environments. 3. We examined the
 virulence of a candidate fungal isolate against two key malaria vectors at
 temperatures from 10–34 °C. Regardless of temperature, the fungus killed
 more than 90% of exposed mosquitoes within the predicted duration of the
 malarial extrinsic incubation period, a result that was robust to
 realistic diurnal temperature variation. 4. We then incorporated
 temperature sensitivities of a suite of mosquito, parasite and fungus
 life-history traits that are important determinants of malaria
 transmission into a stage-structured malaria transmission model. The model
 predicted that, at achievable daily fungal infection rates, fungal
 biopesticides have the potential to deliver substantial reductions in the
 density of malaria-infectious mosquitoes across all temperatures
 representative of malaria transmission environments. 5. Synthesis and
 applications. Our study combines empirical data and theoretical modelling
 to prospectively evaluate the potential of fungal biopesticides to control
 adult malaria vectors. Our results suggest that Beauveria bassiana could
 be a potent tool for malaria control and support further development of
 fungal biopesticides to manage infectious disease vectors.
description: mosquito mortality
 dataMortality data for
 mosquitoes exposed to Beauveria bassiana fungus. 'Experiment'
 indicates the experiment and block, with A1 and A2 representing the
 constant temperature Anopheles stephensi experiments (block 1: 20, 22, 24,
 26, 28, 30 and 34 °C; block 2: 10, 14, 18, 26 and 32 °C), B representing
 the Anopheles gambiae experiment, C representing the blood feeding
 experiment and D representing the diurnal temperature variation
 experiment. 'Temperature' indicates the mean experimental
 temperature. 'AR' indicates fungal application rate.
 'Diet' indicates whether mosquitoes were allowed to feed on
 blood (1) or fed exclusively on glucose-PABA solution (0). 'DTR'
 indicates the diurnal temperature range in degrees Celsius, with
 '0' indicating constant temperatures. 'Cup' indicates
 replicate experimental cups. 'Day' indicates time in days since
 fungal exposure. 'Event' indicates whether mosquitoes died (1)
 or were censored (0), i.e. they survived to the end of the experiment.
 'Count' indicates the number of individual mosquitoes associated
 with the 'Event' column for each treatment and time
 point.data
 for dryad.txt