USDA, Brazil Team up to Fight Dengue Virus

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29--The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Brazilian government officials today signed an agreement to conduct a joint research project to biologically control the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Dengue virus.

Dengue, transmitted primarily by the yellow fever mosquito A. aegypti, causes a severe, flu-like illness.The disease has spread around the world in recent years, reaching epidemic proportions in Brazil and other parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization. WHO estimates there may be 50 million cases of dengue worldwide each year. The mosquito has been largely eliminated from the United States, now confined to the southernmost areas of Florida and Texas.

Under the agreement, the scientists will use a biological control agent called Edhazardia aedis, a microsporidium developed by USDA scientists at the Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, in Gainesville, Fla. CMAVE is part of the Agricultural Research Service, USDA's chief scientific agency.

In the mid 1990s, small-scale field trials using E. aedis in the United States were successful at controlling A. aegypti mosquitoes in Florida, according to Donald Barnard, who heads the Mosquito and Fly Research Unit at CMAVE. Researchers are planning larger-scale trials in Brazil later this year and then large-scale releases of the organism to control the mosquito.

The Brazilian Minister of Health, José Serra, and the Brazilian Ambassador, Rubens Barbosa, joined Gonzalez for today’s signing.

Scientific contact: Donald Barnard, ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, Fla., phone (352) 374-5930, fax (352) 374-5852, [email protected].