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Bevivino G, Maurizi L, Ammendolia MG, Longhi C, Arcà B, Lombardo F. Peptides with Antimicrobial Activity in the Saliva of the Malaria Vector Anopheles coluzzii. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:5529. [PMID: 38791567 PMCID: PMC11121840 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25105529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2024] [Revised: 05/13/2024] [Accepted: 05/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Mosquito saliva plays a crucial physiological role in both sugar and blood feeding by helping sugar digestion and exerting antihemostatic functions. During meal acquisition, mosquitoes are exposed to the internalization of external microbes. Since mosquitoes reingest significant amounts of saliva during feeding, we hypothesized that salivary antimicrobial components may participate in the protection of mouthparts, the crop, and the gut by inhibiting bacterial growth. To identify novel potential antimicrobials from mosquito saliva, we selected 11 candidates from Anopheles coluzzii salivary transcriptomic datasets and obtained them either using a cell-free transcription/translation expression system or, when feasible, via chemical synthesis. Hyp6.2 and hyp13, which were predicted to be produced as propeptides and cleaved in shorter mature forms, showed the most interesting results in bacterial growth inhibition assays. Hyp6.2 (putative mature form, 35 amino acid residues) significantly inhibited the growth of Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Serratia marcescens) bacteria. Hyp13 (short form, 19 amino acid residues) dose-dependently inhibited E. coli and S. marcescens growth, inducing membrane disruption in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as indicated with scanning electron microscopy. In conclusion, we identified two A. coluzzii salivary peptides inhibiting Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria growth and possibly contributing to the protection of mosquito mouthparts and digestive tracts from microbial infection during and/or after feeding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Bevivino
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; (G.B.); (L.M.); (C.L.); (B.A.)
| | - Linda Maurizi
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; (G.B.); (L.M.); (C.L.); (B.A.)
| | - Maria Grazia Ammendolia
- National Center for Innovative Technologies in Public Health, Italian National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy;
| | - Catia Longhi
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; (G.B.); (L.M.); (C.L.); (B.A.)
| | - Bruno Arcà
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; (G.B.); (L.M.); (C.L.); (B.A.)
| | - Fabrizio Lombardo
- Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; (G.B.); (L.M.); (C.L.); (B.A.)
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Kyser AJ, Fotouh B, Mahmoud MY, Frieboes HB. Rising role of 3D-printing in delivery of therapeutics for infectious disease. J Control Release 2024; 366:349-365. [PMID: 38182058 PMCID: PMC10923108 DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.12.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2023] [Revised: 12/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 01/07/2024]
Abstract
Modern drug delivery to tackle infectious disease has drawn close to personalizing medicine for specific patient populations. Challenges include antibiotic-resistant infections, healthcare associated infections, and customizing treatments for local patient populations. Recently, 3D-printing has become a facilitator for the development of personalized pharmaceutic drug delivery systems. With a variety of manufacturing techniques, 3D-printing offers advantages in drug delivery development for controlled, fine-tuned release and platforms for different routes of administration. This review summarizes 3D-printing techniques in pharmaceutics and drug delivery focusing on treating infectious diseases, and discusses the influence of 3D-printing design considerations on drug delivery platforms targeting these diseases. Additionally, applications of 3D-printing in infectious diseases are summarized, with the goal to provide insight into how future delivery innovations may benefit from 3D-printing to address the global challenges in infectious disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony J Kyser
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering, Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
| | - Bassam Fotouh
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering, Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
| | - Mohamed Y Mahmoud
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering, Louisville, KY 40202, USA; Department of Toxicology and Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt.
| | - Hermann B Frieboes
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering, Louisville, KY 40202, USA; Center for Predictive Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40202, USA; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY 40202, USA; UofL Health - Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
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Lord JS, Bonsall MB. Mechanistic modelling of within-mosquito viral dynamics: Insights into infection and dissemination patterns. PLoS Comput Biol 2023; 19:e1011520. [PMID: 37812643 PMCID: PMC10586656 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Vector or host competence can be defined as the ability of an individual to become infected and subsequently transmit a pathogen. Assays to measure competence play a key part in the assessment of the factors affecting mosquito-borne virus transmission and of potential pathogen-blocking control tools for these viruses. For mosquitoes, competence for arboviruses can be measured experimentally and results are usually analysed using standard statistical approaches. Here we develop a mechanistic approach to studying within-mosquito virus dynamics that occur during vector competence experiments. We begin by developing a deterministic model of virus replication in the mosquito midgut and subsequent escape and replication in the hemocoel. We then extend this to a stochastic model to capture the between-individual variation observed in vector competence experiments. We show that the dose-response of the probability of mosquito midgut infection and variation in the dissemination rate can be explained by stochastic processes generated from a small founding population of virions, caused by a relatively low rate of virion infection of susceptible cells. We also show that comparing treatments or species in competence experiments by fitting mechanistic models could provide further insight into potential differences. Generally, our work adds to the growing body of literature emphasizing the importance of intrinsic stochasticity in biological systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer S. Lord
- Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom
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Talebzadeh F, Ghadipasha M, Gharehdaghi J, Raoofian R, Azam K, Koosha M, Oshaghi MA. Efficiency of mitochondrial genes and nuclear Alu elements in detecting human DNA in blood meals of Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes: a time-course study. Parasit Vectors 2023; 16:284. [PMID: 37580774 PMCID: PMC10426119 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-023-05884-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/14/2023] [Indexed: 08/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The time required for PCR detection of DNA in human blood meals in vector mosquitoes may vary, depending on the molecular markers used, based on the size and copy number of the amplicons. Detailed knowledge of the blood-feeding behavior of mosquito populations in nature is an essential component for evaluating their vectorial capacity and for assessing the roles of individual vertebrates as potential hosts involved in the transmission of vector-borne diseases. METHODS Laboratory experiments were conducted to compare the time course of PCR detection of DNA in human blood meals from individual blood-fed Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, using loci with different characteristics, including two mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genes, cytB (228 bp) and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) (157 bp) and nuclear Alu-repeat elements (226 bp) at different time points after the blood meal. RESULTS Human DNA was detectable up to 84-120 h post-blood-feeding, depending on the length and copy number of the loci. Our results suggest that 16S rRNA and Alu-repeat markers can be successfully recovered from human DNA up to 5 days post-blood-meal. The 16S rDNA and Alu-repeat loci have a significantly (P = 0.008) slower decline rate than the cytB locus. Median detection periods (T50) for the amplicons were 117, 113 and 86.4 h for Alu-repeat, 16S rDNA and cytB, respectively, suggesting an inverse linear relationship between amplicon size/copy number and digestion time. CONCLUSION This comparative study shows that the Alu-repeat locus is the most efficient marker for time-course identification of human DNA from blood meals in female mosquitoes. It is also a promising tool for determining the anthropophilic index (AI) or human blood index (HBI), i.e. the proportion of blood meals from humans, which is often reported as a relative measure of anthropophagy of different mosquito vectors, and hence a measure of the vector competence of mosquito species collected in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fahimeh Talebzadeh
- Department of Vector Biology and Control of Diseases, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Masoud Ghadipasha
- Legal Medicine Research Center, Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran
| | - Jaber Gharehdaghi
- Legal Medicine Research Center, Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran
| | - Reza Raoofian
- Legal Medicine Research Center, Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran
| | - Kamal Azam
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mona Koosha
- Department of Vector Biology and Control of Diseases, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Ali Oshaghi
- Department of Vector Biology and Control of Diseases, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Costa-da-Silva AL. Membrane Feeding Devices to Blood Feed Mosquitoes in the Laboratory. Cold Spring Harb Protoc 2023; 2023:107655-pdb.top. [PMID: 36223989 DOI: 10.1101/pdb.top107655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/18/2023]
Abstract
Husbandry protocols for medically important mosquito species in the laboratory have the blood feeding procedure as an inherent step in the maintenance routine for egg production. Artificial feeders have become the main solution for delivering blood meals to these hematophagous insects, circumventing the need for vertebrate hosts. Mimicking the skin, these devices both heat the blood and hold a membrane through which the blood can be ingested by mosquitoes. Several commercial and noncommercial artificial mosquito feeders are available, but obstacles like high cost and complex assembly can restrict their routine use. To address this issue, a number of feeders have been designed that can be built with common materials found in the laboratory. They are cheaper and more accessible, but the absence of built-in temperature control and heating units can limit their efficacy. One of the most accessible mosquito feeders is the Glytube. It consists of a 50-mL conical centrifuge tube with heated glycerol that delivers blood through a membrane. The Glytube has been used successfully to model mosquito blood feeding. Recently, 3D printing has emerged as an alternative method to create customized artificial feeders. This technology is expected to facilitate access to and reduce the cost of these devices with open-source 3D model files that can be shared among laboratories maintaining mosquitoes worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andre Luis Costa-da-Silva
- Department of Biological Sciences and Biomolecular Sciences Institute, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, USA
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Graumans W, Schinkel M, van Gemert GJ, Spitzen J, Bousema T, Miesen P. Comparative analysis of glass and Hemotek membrane feeding systems for malaria transmission research. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2023:6986841. [PMID: 36637101 DOI: 10.1093/trstmh/trac135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2022] [Revised: 12/28/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Glass membrane feeders are used in malaria research for artificial blood feeding. This study investigates the use of Hemotek membrane feeders as a standardized alternative feeding system. METHODS Hemotek feeders were compared with glass feeders by assessing mosquito feeding rate, imbibed blood meal volume and Plasmodium falciparum infection intensity on mosquito guts. RESULTS While mosquito feeding rate and blood meal volume were comparable between Hemotek and glass feeders, a loss in transmission was observed using the Hemotek feeder with a conventional collagen membrane. There was no difference in transmission between both feeders when Parafilm was used as the membrane. CONCLUSIONS Hemotek feeders with a Parafilm membrane can be used as an alternative feeding system for malaria transmission research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wouter Graumans
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Nijmegen 6500 HB, The Netherlands
| | - Michelle Schinkel
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen 6500 HB, The Netherlands
| | - Geert-Jan van Gemert
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Nijmegen 6500 HB, The Netherlands
| | - Jeroen Spitzen
- Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6500 HB, The Netherlands
| | - Teun Bousema
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Nijmegen 6500 HB, The Netherlands.,Department of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK
| | - Pascal Miesen
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen 6500 HB, The Netherlands
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Stelder JJ, Mihalca AD, Olesen AS, Kjær LJ, Boklund AE, Rasmussen TB, Marinov M, Alexe V, Balmoş OM, Bødker R. Potential mosquito vector attraction to- and feeding preferences for pigs in Romanian backyard farms. Front Vet Sci 2023; 9:1046263. [PMID: 36686172 PMCID: PMC9846066 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2022.1046263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Mosquitoes either biologically or mechanically transmit various vector-borne pathogens affecting pigs. Mosquito species display a wide variety of host preference, as well as host attraction and behaviours. Mosquito species attraction rates to- and feeding rates on pigs or other potential hosts, as well as the seasonal abundance of the mosquito species affects their pathogen transmission potential. Methods We caught mosquitoes in experimental cages containing pigs situated in Romanian backyard farms. The host species of blood meals were identified with PCR and sequencing. Results High feeding preferences for pigs were observed in Aedes vexans (90%), Anopheles maculipennis (80%) and Culiseta annulata (72.7%). However, due to a high abundance in the traps, Culex pipiens/torrentium were responsible for 37.9% of all mosquito bites on pigs in the Romanian backyards, despite low feeding rates on pigs in the cages (18.6%). We also found that other predominantly ornithophilic mosquito species, as well as mosquitoes that are already carrying a blood meal from a different (mammalian) host, were attracted to backyard pigs or their enclosure. Discussion These results indicate that viraemic blood carrying, for instance, African swine fever virus, West-Nile virus or Japanese encephalitis virus could be introduced to these backyard pig farms and therefore cause an infection, either through subsequent feeding, via ingestion by the pig or by environmental contamination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonno Jorn Stelder
- Section for Animal Welfare and Disease Control, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark,*Correspondence: Jonno Jorn Stelder ✉
| | - Andrei Daniel Mihalca
- Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - Ann Sofie Olesen
- Department of Virus and Microbiological Special Diagnostics, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Lene Jung Kjær
- Section for Animal Welfare and Disease Control, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Anette Ella Boklund
- Section for Animal Welfare and Disease Control, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Thomas Bruun Rasmussen
- Department of Virus and Microbiological Special Diagnostics, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mihai Marinov
- Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, Tulcea, Romania
| | - Vasile Alexe
- Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, Tulcea, Romania
| | - Oana Maria Balmoş
- Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
| | - René Bødker
- Section for Animal Welfare and Disease Control, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Faber PA, Dorai AJ, Chown SL. A standardised low-cost membrane blood-feeder for Aedes aegypti made using common laboratory materials. PeerJ 2022; 10:e14247. [PMID: 36325181 PMCID: PMC9620972 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Blood feeding is a necessary part of laboratory studies involving mosquitoes and other hematophagous arthropods of interest in medical and ecological research. However, methods involving hosts may present serious risks, require ethics approvals and can be expensive. Here we describe an insect blood feeder made using common laboratory materials, which is low cost (<US$100) and can be constructed and operated with little technical expertise. We compared the blood feeder containing an artificial blood diet, Skitosnack, to direct human arm feeding for Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae), in terms of engorgement rate, fecundity and hatch rate. No significant difference in fecundity between the two approaches was found, (mean ± SD); direct human arm: 56 ± 26 eggs/female, artificial method: 47 ± 25 eggs/female, P = 0.569. Engorgement rates (direct human arm: 97.8 ± 4%, artificial: 64.1 ± 23%, P < 0.05) and hatch rates (direct human arm: 75 ± 12%, artificial: 59 ± 14%, P < 0.05) were lower in the artificially fed mosquitoes. Despite these differences, we maintained a healthy mosquito colony for 10 generations using the artificial feeding approach. Results from this comparison are within the range of other studies which compared direct host feeding with an artificial feeding method. We anticipate that the blood feeder presented here could substantially reduce costs usually required to establish a standardised and effective blood feeding method for maintaining mosquito colonies or conducting experiments, extending the capability of laboratories especially where research resources are limited, but vector-borne diseases common.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A. Faber
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | | | - Steven L. Chown
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Adams DR, Aguirre-Cordero E, Hamer GL. The effect of anticoagulants in artificial blood meals on the mortality, fecundity, and fertility of Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti (Culicidae). JOURNAL OF VECTOR ECOLOGY : JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR VECTOR ECOLOGY 2021; 46:137-142. [PMID: 35230017 DOI: 10.52707/1081-1710-46.2.137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/13/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Blood sources used for insect colonies and their effects on fecundity and fertility have been studied in multiple mosquito species, but the effect of anticoagulants that prevent clotting of blood has received minimal attention. Here, we identify the effect two anticoagulants have on the mortality, fecundity, and fertility of Culex quinquefasciatus (Sebring and BCS strains) and Aedes aegypti Liverpool. Each mosquito species was provided with one of three treatments: direct feeding on live chicken (LC), blood from freshly exsanguinated chicken treated with heparin (EXS) or commercially purchased chicken blood treated with Alsever's solution (ART). No significant effect of treatment on mortality was observed. Both Cx. quinquefasciatus Sebring and BCS strains demonstrated a significant effect of treatment type on fecundity with the number of eggs laid for LC being 1.40-fold higher than EXS and 2.14-fold higher than ART for Sebring. For BCS strain mosquitoes, LC was 1.55-fold higher than ART, and EXS was 1.57-fold higher than ART, but there was no significant difference between LC and EXS. For Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, only a significant difference in mean egg counts was observed between LC and ART treatments, with LC laying 1.46-fold more eggs. No significant effect on fertility was observed among any mosquitoes for any treatment. These results demonstrate the negative effect of anticoagulants on the fecundity for multiple mosquito taxa. This may affect the ability of labs to produce large numbers of mosquitoes or colonize wild mosquito populations and should be taken into account when considering colony maintenance or vector biology research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dayvion R Adams
- Texas A&M University, Department of Entomology, College Station, TX 77843, U.S.A
- Texas A&M University, Schubot Center for Avian Health, College Station, TX, U.S.A
| | - Erik Aguirre-Cordero
- Texas A&M University, Department of Entomology, College Station, TX 77843, U.S.A
| | - Gabriel L Hamer
- Texas A&M University, Department of Entomology, College Station, TX 77843, U.S.A.,
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