VERO BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) – As officials continue to kill mosquitoes that may be carrying Zika, some scientists are purposely infecting the insects with the virus to study them.
Viruses like Dengue, Chikungunya and now Zika are all transmitted by mosquitoes and are intentionally brought to the Florida Medical Entomological Laboratory near Vero Beach, all in the name of science.
“Trying to understand how the mosquito, and the environment and the virus interact with each other to determine susceptibility of infection and transmission of the virus,” said Dr. Barry Alto, Assistant Professor at the Florida Medical Entomology Lab.
Alto studies mosquito-borne diseases and recently started working with Zika.
The lab obtained a strain of the Zika-virus from Puerto Rico, which was supplied by the CDC.
Alto said, “We propagate Zika virus and other viruses in tissue culture, so we allow cells that are susceptible to the infection, we mix that with the blood, and then we administer infectious blood meals to the mosquitoes using an artificial membrane feeding system that works very well. We are deliberately infecting the mosquitoes.”
The containers with red-mesh in these pictures house mosquitoes about to be exposed to the Chikungunya virus.
When working with these containers, scientists wear protective suits inside the most restricted room in the building, a biosafety level three laboratory. For comparison, the Ebola Virus is handled in a level four, which is the most secure lab. “It’s sealed extremely tight, and we have multiple doors to go through that are keypad entry to get in there,” Alto said. “When we go in there, we’re wearing, I wouldn’t say a full spacesuit, but it’s pretty close. Only the most responsible and trained individuals can go and work in there.”
Researchers are hoping to learn how long it takes a mosquito that was fed a Zika-infected blood meal to become infectious to humans, the toll the virus takes on the mosquito itself and how resistant they are to insecticides.
The goal is to understand how Zika impacts mosquitoes to help control the virus and aid in developing better tests to diagnose it in humans. “I do think that more cases will occur,” Alto said. “I do not think it will be on the scale that we’ve seen in other sorts of territories or countries in the Americas, though.”
He told 7News that he believes the cooler and dryer weather that will come in the fall and winter will reduce the risk of disease transmission.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory
http://fmel.ifas.ufl.edu/
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