Monitoring the behavior of the Anopheles Mosquito
Working closely with a US research institution, our scientists have assisted their research into developing different methods of tracking the travel patterns of the mosquitoes responsible for the spread of the deadly disease. One idea was to allow batches of the mosquitoes, in a closely controlled environment, to feed on different sugar water, each containing a unique SmartWater forensic signature (photo 1).
Once the SmartWater was detected in the gut of the mosquito, it would be tracked via the fluorescence or even by analysis of its faeces, to establish flight patterns and how its travel could be influenced by a variety of natural and, potentially, artificially created environmental conditions.
This research is still at its early stages but initial results are promising.
Photographs courtesy of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Maryland, USA