Background: Glass membrane feeders are used in malaria research for artificial blood feeding. This study investigates the use of Hemotek membrane feeders as a standardized alternative feeding system.
Methods: Hemotek feeders were compared with glass feeders by assessing mosquito feeding rate, imbibed blood meal volume and Plasmodium falciparum infection intensity on mosquito guts.
Results: While mosquito feeding rate and blood meal volume were comparable between Hemotek and glass feeders, a loss in transmission was observed using the Hemotek feeder with a conventional collagen membrane. There was no difference in transmission between both feeders when Parafilm was used as the membrane.
Conclusions: Hemotek feeders with a Parafilm membrane can be used as an alternative feeding system for malaria transmission research.
Keywords: Plasmodium falciparum; artificial feeding system; blood meal; gametocytes.
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.