{"id":46938,"date":"2024-05-09T13:49:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T13:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/09\/getting-wild-mosquitoes-back-to-the-lab-alive-takes-a-custom-backpack\/"},"modified":"2024-05-09T13:49:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T13:49:20","slug":"getting-wild-mosquitoes-back-to-the-lab-alive-takes-a-custom-backpack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/09\/getting-wild-mosquitoes-back-to-the-lab-alive-takes-a-custom-backpack\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting wild mosquitoes back to the lab alive takes a custom backpack"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This backpack isn\u2019t typical hiking gear. Look inside and instead of water and snacks, you\u2019ll see swarms of mosquitoes.<\/p>

Molecular biologist Deogratius Kavishe designed the bag to transport these bloodsucking insects from deep in the Tanzanian wilderness to the lab. Made from locally available materials like PVC fiberglass netting (often used for window screens), a metal frame and Tanzanian kitenge <\/em>cotton fabric, the backpack cost about $70 to produce and can hold enough mosquitoes to fill 18 paper cups. Because the backpack is ventilated and has a cover flap that can be soaked in water, the environment inside remains cool and moist, protecting mosquito passengers from the sun and heat.<\/p>

Kavishe, a research scientist at Ifakara Health Institute in central Tanzania, and colleagues intend to test whether mosquitoes in the region are still susceptible to a common class of insecticide. Insect nets laced with pyrethroids have been used for decades to kill mosquitoes that harbor diseases like malaria. The extended exposure has led many mosquito populations to become resistant<\/a>, no longer reliably killed by the chemicals (SN: 5\/21\/23<\/em>). \u201cWe have a very big problem with resistance,\u201d says Kavishe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resistant mosquitoes have been found across Africa, with some populations able to survive exposure to pyrethroid levels that are 1,000 times higher than the standard deadly dose. The World Health Organization warns that this growing problem could erase the progress made in the last decade against malaria, which kills about 600,000 people worldwide each year. There\u2019s an idea that using pyrethroid in combination with another pesticide could help reverse the trend. For that strategy to work, though, there need to be some pyrethroid-susceptible mosquitoes still in the environment. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n