How Do You Manage Mosquitoes? Take Our Survey and Tell Us How

Dear PMP, an essential part of mosquito management is surveillance, particularly for vector-borne diseases that impinge on the morbidity of the human population. In recent years there has been a revolution in the way the surveillance is being conducted. Within the mosquito catch buckets are placed special papers called FTA cards. These cards contain propriety chemicals that can trap virus nucleic acid and denatures it, rendering it safe. The FTA cards are coated in honey; the trapped mosquito feed on the honey and expectorate (spit) saliva out. Any virus present is then trapped and bound onto the cards. The cards are sent to the laboratory, where the virus is eluted (washed out) and tested molecular means such as PCR. A result can be obtained within one day. Compare this to cell culture, which has been the gold standard for arbovirus surveillance for 30 years, the latter methodology can take up to three weeks for a result. Thus we are in a much better position to serve the community by warning the public of the presence of human pathogens.

Please note that I am the Director of the New South Wales Arbovirus Surveillance Program in Sydney Australia and been involved in mosquito-borne disease surveillance for around 25 years.

Stephen Doggett, Director Medical Entomology, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia.