
USDA, Brazil Team up to Fight
Dengue VirusBy Sean Adams February 29, 2000WASHINGTON, 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. Our USDA scientists are among the foremost experts in the world in
controlling the mosquito that transmits this disease, said Under
Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics
I. Miley Gonzalez, who
signed the agreement today. We are hopeful that we can suppress this
disease and improve the health of people in more than 100 countries where this
disease is now endemic. 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 todays 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]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |