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Can entomopathogenic fungi be used to produce a cheap organic pesticide for sustainable malaria control?
Malaria control has been successfully achieved with insecticides directed against blood-fed mosquitoes resting on house walls. However, the evolution of insecticide resistance in the mosquitoes, and concerns about the environmental consequences of sustained use of chemicals, make standard approaches unsustainable. We hope to develop an approach which overcomes both these problems.
Group members involved: Simon Blanford
Collaborators: Matt Thomas
Abstract of Wellcome Trust Project grant which is funding this work (written in 2002):
Novel use of fungal entomopathogens for malaria control
Use of entomopathogens
for mosquito biocontrol has had limited success. Limited ecological thinking and technical constraints, in particular,
have hampered development of biopesticides for control of adults. However, recent advances in production and formulation
technology have increased the scope for use of Deuteromycete entomopathogenic fungi as oil-based biopesticides. Using Anopheles
stephensi and rodent malaria as a model system, and integrating empirical and theoretical approaches from fundamental
ecology and agricultural pest control, the current project aims to investigate the potential of this new technology
for development of a biopesticide for malaria control. We adopt a novel approach examining mixtures of fungal isolates
and exploring effects of infection on vector capacity and not simply vector mortality. The ability of what might be
quite avirulent pathogens to influence vector capacity has been virtually ignored, yet subtle effects of sub-lethal
infection on, for example, feeding behaviour, flight potential, thermal behaviour and immune response are common in
other host-pathogen systems and could have significant effects on vector capacity and malaria dynamics. This, coupled
with a novel pathogen delivery system infecting resting mosquitoes via residual pick-up of spores from surfaces treated
with the oil-based formulation, creates exciting new opportunities for sustainable malaria control.
Photo courtesy of Edinburgh Research and Innovation Ltd.
Wellcome Trust Highlight article 2006/7 click here.