A tethered helium balloon carrying sticky nets we have been using to intercept flying mosquitoes among other insects at altitude to monitor migrant activity, pathogens they carry, and impact on public health, food security, and ecosystem stability.
Our group is committed to establishing a pan-African network of aerial sampling stations to monitor windborne movement of insect disease vectors, disease agents, agriculture pests and their enemies, and keystone species affecting ecosystem stability. The data produced will generate a spatio-temporal baseline for taxa of interest and evaluate changes in the risks to public health, food security, and ecosystem stability based on departures from these baselines.
Rooted in the One-Health paradigm, this project expands the human disease components to include animal and plant diseases both domestic and wild; all affecting health, food supply, and ecosystem stability. We are currently operating in Mali (since 2012), in Kenya (since 2018) and in Ghana (since 2020). We plan to expand our operation to other African countries.
Main Areas of Focus
- Describe and map high-altitude long-distance migration of insect disease vectors, disease agents, agriculture pests, and their enemies in Africa
- Assess the impact of such movements on public health and food security and the benefits of real-time monitoring of changes in migration pattern of select taxa and their implications
- Build capacity in African countries
- Improve integrated pest management (IPM), including spread of genes conferring insecticide resistance
- Conduct biodiversity analysis of high-altitude flying organisms, including pathogen discovery
Scientific Papers
- The effects of high-altitude windborne migration on survival, oviposition and blood-feeding of the African malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae s.l. April 29, 2020
- Quantifying flight aptitude variation in wild A. gambiae s.l. in order to identify long-distance migrant March 3, 2020
- Massive windborne migration of Sahelian insects: Diversity, seasonality, altitude, and direction February 28, 2020
- Windborne long-distance migration of malaria mosquitoes in the Sahel October 2, 2019
General Media
- Malaria mosquito crosses large desert – ‘it was a breeze’ December 13, 2019
- Study: Mosquitoes carried across the Sahel by wind, possibly spreading malaria October 3, 2019
- Malaria-carrying mosquitoes may be able to travel hundreds of kilometers riding wind, research shows October 3, 2019
- Malaria mosquitoes go with the flow October 2, 2019
- Windborne mosquitoes may carry malaria hundreds of kilometers October 2, 2019
- Windborne long-distance migration of malaria mosquitoes in the Sahel October 2, 2019
- Mosquitoes may surf winds above Africa more than we realized November 27, 2018