LONDON, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- A potentially dangerous new mosquito has been discovered in Kenya that can transmit malaria in ways that cannot be stopped by current malaria control techniques, said British scientists on Monday.

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said in a statement that its researchers have discovered this new species of mosquito in the highlands of western Kenya.

They caught many mosquitoes using traps in a village, and identified 348 of them using DNA sequencing techniques. Over 40 percent were found to be of this unidentified species. Five mosquitoes of this species were carrying malaria parasites and two had fed on humans.

The previously known mosquito species that transmits malaria in Africa, Anopheles, prefers to rest indoors and bite humans at night. This led to the development of programmes to stop the spread of malaria such as spraying insecticide in homes and issuing bed nets for people to sleep under.

However, this new species of mosquito was found to be active outdoors and bite people earlier in the evening soon after sunset.

"These unidentified mosquitoes are potentially dangerous because they are outdoor-active and early-biting, and so may evade the current indoor-based interventions to control mosquitoes," said Jennifer Stevenson at LSHTM.

Reporting their discovery in the September issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, the researchers are now calling for increased entomological surveillance and a focus on integrating a wider range of malaria control tools to deal with the threat of outdoor transmission.

They added the mosquitoes have so far been seen only in one location in Kenya, and tourists should better protect themselves with a mosquito net treated with a long-lasting insecticidal treatment while traveling. Enditem

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