UMES Mosquito research project
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – A research project over at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is capturing and studying mosquitoes on Delmarva and the vector-borne diseases they can transmit. In light of the recent uptick in mosquitoes along with the growing concern of West Nile virus, researchers say this is an opportune time to find answers – and fast.
“This area, as you see has a lot of water, a lot of birds, a lot of animals and humans now also, and mosquitoes, says Dr. Dia-Eldin Elnaiem, Professor of Medical Entomology. Around here, there are over 20 mosquito species, many of which are carrying diseases. “The virus inside the mosquito, the plasmodium parasite inside the mosquito, and the malaria parasite need heightened temperature to finish their cycle,” he tells us.
Those heightened temperatures, according to Dr. Eldin Elnaiem are due to climate change. With higher overall temperatures, it means insects such as mosquitoes are going to continue populating in areas, such as the Eastern Shore. “That helps the propagation of the vector because if mosquitoes spend their life cycle to produce a generation and that can happen in two weeks, if you give them a higher temperature, they can finish it in one week, and they can duplicate that population.”
To address those growing concerns, a research team at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, in collaboration with the Mosquito Control Agency of Maryland, has created multiple trapping systems to gather an abundance of mosquitoes so they can see which trap is the best for monitoring the mosquito population. “The fan will suck the mosquitoes up because as they try to come and lay their eggs and they get trapped and that way we capture a large number of mosquitoes that have already taken a blood meal,” says Dr. Eldin Elnaiem.
The traps use different types of water such as hay-infused water, while others are more intricate contraptions involving dry ice. Once they figure out the best one, they’re able to take the insects to the lab and test them. “You realize these are very different species, they appear different, they transmit different viruses, they do very different things, some bite during the day and some bite during night,” explains Lesley Thomas, the research assistant, and a senior biology pre-med student at UMES.
This project is allowing them to look more in-depth into the overall biology of these insects to learn what viruses could potentially surface here on the eastern shore. “We could learn what we need to begin to think about for the future and if we can control these mosquitoes then we can also in turn control these viruses,” Thomas adds.
Once they capture, and analyze these insects, they can in turn predict what temperature is going to affect the vector population. However, one may ask, what else do they want to do with this information? Dr. Eldin Elnaiem says “We can produce very good maps that people can get on their telephone devices, and it’s an interactive map where they can see the risk of the exact amount of mosquitoes. This is a place where you can get this type of disease and avoid it.”
Mosquitoes aren’t going away any time soon, so we’re told research like this is crucial to help us deal with the uptick, and hopefully protect ourselves from whatever diseases mosquitoes could bring. “This is our dream for this experiment that we started last year and is progressing well, and hopefully by the end of next year, we’ll have an answer not only here, by the mosquito vector control here, but maybe for the whole nation,” says Dr. Eldin Elnaiem.
Maryland had the first human case of West Nile virus this year; Meaning research like this is crucial as we see more mosquitoes populating the area, with a
higher risk of carrying diseases.
