Anthony Cornel - Associate Entomologist, Mosquito Control
Despite over a century of research focused on mosquitoes of medical importance there is still a lot more to be understood about them. The overall theme of research in my laboratory examines how disease vector mosquitoes adapt to the changing environment and then to establish improved guidelines to control them using existing and novel control measures. Constant use of insecticides has enabled selection of insecticide resistance mosquitoes, and we are now investigating how insecticide resistance affects efficacy of adult aerial insecticide applications on California mosquito disease vectors? These studies involve conducting concomitant laboratory insecticide resistance assays (Figure 1) and field based aerial application efficacy evaluations in different landscapes (Figure2).
Some disease vector mosquitoes are adapting to survive in increasingly urbanized landscapes, especially in cities that follow Sustainable and Green city planning concepts. Studies are underway to examine changing behaviors, such as selection of immature development water bodies, dispersal, and blood feeding propensities of relevant mosquito species.
I am involved in the University of California Malaria Initiative by assisting in obtaining base line data relevant to designing a plan to release genetically modified Anopheles coluzzii to reduce malaria prevalence on some Islands in West Africa. For more information about this project view https://stopmalaria.org/ and Figure 3.
After thirty years of researching the ecology and population structure of human and bird malaria vectors in Africa I have realized that the identification keys available to identify Culicines are in desperate need of updating. My laboratory staff are currently involved in collaborations with researchers in Cameroon and in France to improve descriptions and create pictorial keys to identify the close to 1,000 Afrotropical Culicine mosquito species.
As part of the UC systems mission to educate future scientists and the public via public outreach programs, staff in my lab conduct didactic training vector identification, insecticide resistance and surveillance workshops and field demonstrations on multiple Pacific Islands (over 20 Island nations) that experience dengue virus outbreaks (see Figures 4).
