UC Scientists, Mosquito Abatement Experts Vow All-Out War On Malaria

Gregory Lanzaro (right), director of the UC Malaria Research and Control Group, discusses plans with Major Dhillon, manager of the Northwest Mosquito and Vector Control District, Corona. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The newly formed coalition of UC scientists and the state’s mosquito abatement experts will battle malaria on three unique fronts: mosquito abatement, applied research to improve existing mosquito control strategies, and basic research aimed at developing new and novel methods to control malaria vectors, said MRCG director and medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, who also directs the statewide UC Mosquito Research Program and the Center for Vectorborne Diseases, both based on the Davis campus.

“MRCG is firmly committed to defeating the most formidable and challenging mosquito-borne disease,” he said.

The coalition recently met in Davis to brainstorm ways to battle the deadly disease, spread by an insect that measures a quarter of an inch long.

“Intensive efforts to eliminate malaria in Africa are largely ineffective,” Lanzaro told the 21-member group, comprised of 20 scientists from four UC campuses and representatives from the 61-district Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California (MVCAC), led by executive director Christopher Voight, Sacramento.

Lanzaro pointed out that that many countries in Africa lack the infrastructure and resources necessary to mount campaigns; that industrialized countries traditionally invest very little in malaria research; and that malaria cases in Africa are increasing, due primarily to insecticide and drug resistance.

“It is crucial right now to develop a more effective vector control program because what they have in Africa now isn’t working,” Lanzaro said.

Malaria, one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases, kills 1.5 to 2.5 million people a year, primarily in Africa. Nine out of 10 deaths are among sub-Saharan children under age 5. World Health Organization statistics show that malaria kills a child in Africa every 10 to 15 seconds, or some 8000 children a day.

MRCG’s action plan, encompassing academic research, education and public service, ranges from developing successful vector control programs in Africa now to long-term approaches, including genetically modifying Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes in ways that render them ineffective in transmitting the parasite that causes malaria.

“We’re looking at new and innovative approaches,” said Lanzaro, who has worked on mosquito research in Africa since 1991. “Existing malaria vector control programs rely almost exclusively on the application of pesticides, pyrethoids and DDT. Resistance to these chemicals is widespread in anopheline populations throughout Africa. Almost certainly resistance will ultimately reach levels that result in control failure. It is therefore necessary to continue research on novel control strategies.”

Six MRCG members are already working on mosquito research in Mali, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa through previously funded federal grants. They are Charles Taylor of UCLA; Anthony James and Guiyun Yan of UC Irvine; and Lanzaro, Anthony Cornel and Shirley Luckhart of UC Davis.

The three UC Davis researchers, along with graduate students Lisa Reimer and Tara Thiemann, will work in Mali this summer. Cornel will do research in Cameroon; Taylor in Guinea; and Yan is currently doing research in Ghana.

Also at its organizational meeting, MRCG members agreed on a three-pronged action plan: short, middle, and long term. First on the list: saving lives in Africa now through a more effective vector control program.

MVCAC executive director Christopher Voight said that “efficient and effective methods of mosquito control, honed over decades of use in California, can be exported to Africa with immediate effects.” The state’s mosquito abatement districts, covering 38,000 square miles, focus on a formula of education, surveillance and control.

Said Lanzaro: “The California mosquito abatement districts comprise one of the most comprehensive and technically advanced mosquito control programs in the world. The UC scientists and the abatement experts have a long history of collaboration.”

Applied research will involve implementing, managing, evaluating and enhancing currently available vector control programs. Plans cover biological control, insecticide resistance monitoring and management, epidemiology, surveillance of disease and mosquito abundance.

Basic research will key in on molecular biology: the development of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes for malaria control, and the development of GM biological control agents.

MRCG is now seeking funds to carry out its mission, Lanzaro said. “The Ifakara Health Research and Development Center in Tanzania and others are very much interested in collaborating with our group.”

MRCG’s overall mission is three-fold:

• To facilitate collaborative activities, including organized research and training, to mitigate the malaria burden in Africa
• To provide technical advice to public health agencies on malaria control programs, based on mosquito abatement in Africa
• To devise strategies that integrate current mosquito abatement methodologies with new and innovative approaches toward the development of integrated vector management programs

The short-term action plan includes:

• Develop a vector control program and review existing protocol
• Review epidemiology and existing drug treatment program to see “what’s out there.”
• Launch a training program
• Review insecticide and drug resistance problems and available resistance monitoring methods, that is, methods for managing resistance
• Develop methods for larval control

The middle-term plans would:

• Manage and disseminate information
• Evaluate outcomes—how well is the program working?
• Develop training programs
• Look at novel control practices: insecticide detection, drug resistance detection and larval control: biological, chemical and ecological

The long-range plan covers:

• Strategies for genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes
• Mosquito genotypes, critical to parasite transmissions risk assessment
• Biological control agents, including two strains of bacteria that target mosquitoes: Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis or Bti, and Bacillus sphaericus (Bs); and other bacterial and GM agents and fungi
• Attractants and repellants

All three plans cite cost-effectiveness.

The 21-member team of MRCG is comprised of:

• UC Davis: Anthony Cornel , Bruce Hammock, Sharon Lawler, Walter Leal, Shirley Luckhart, Sergey V. Nuzhdin, William Reisen and Thomas Scott
• UC Irvine: Timothy Bradley, Anthony James and Guiyun Yan
• UCLA: Charles Taylor
• UC Riverside: Peter Atkinson, Timothy Bradley, R ing Cardé, B rian Federici, S arjeet Gill, Karine Le Roch, Alexander Raikhel and William Walton
• MVCAC: Christopher Voight

Malaria is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. In Africa, Anopheles gambiae is the most efficient vector for the disease.

The most deadly parasite it transmits is Plasmodium falciparum, which can kill within hours of noticeable symptoms. These symptoms include high fever, severe headache, drowsiness, delirium and confusion.

More information on the collaborators, including their African partnerships and research expertise, is available on the MRCG Web site at www.mrcg.ucdavis.edu. MRCG is part of the UC Mosquito Research Program, a systemwide program of the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Founded in 1972, the UC Mosquito Research Program is headquartered at 396 Briggs Hall, UC Davis.