Plasmodium cynomolgi: the comparative infectiousness of individual rhesus monkeys

Five rhesus monkeys were infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium cynomolgi Mayer. Anopheles stephensi Liston mosquitoes were fed on each monkey over the period of prepremunitive gametocytemia. Individual monkeys did not differ significantly in either mean daily gametocyte count (median = 1300 gametocytes per mosquito blood meal volume per day) or mean daily oocyst production (median = 34 oocysts per mosquito per day). Significant differences among monkeys in daily oocyst/gametocyte conversion ratio were attributable to essentially random correlation effects. The observed range in duration of the period of prepremunitive gametocytemia was 14–43 days. Total oocyst production over this period, as calculated for a unit mosquito biting rate of one per day, ranged from 130 to 2800 oocysts. The overall efficiency of conversion of gametocytes to oocysts in A. stephensi was estimated at 0.02 oocysts per gametocyte.