Due to their movements and outdoor activities, rubber
tappers have occupational exposures to malaria vectors in
MRPs due to rubber tapping patterns. In fact, rubber
plantations are normally polygonal rather than rectangular
and, topologically, the hilly rubber plantations are on
slopes of varying angles of inclination and altitudes (Fig. 4).
Therefore, in uphill areas of rubber plantations, rubber
tappers can be more frequently exposed to multiple bites
on multiple locations if they revisit more rubber plantations
and perform more night-time rubber tapping (Fig. 5).
Interestingly, rubber tappers’ exposure to malaria is largely
dependent on human movements into polygonal rubber
plantations, and factors such as the geospatial and agrienvironmental
and climatic conditions are known to
contribute to the risk of infection because a dynamic
abundance and distribution of the Anopheles populations
indigenous to polygonal rubber plantations depend upon
speciesespecies interactions, predatoreprey interactions
and aggregating-segregating forages. The bionomics of
potent Anopheles vectors will enlighten our understanding
of the connection between vector ecology and human
movements into polygonal rubber plantations where occupational
exposures to malaria vectors occur at different
locations and times.