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Mosquito blood meals reveal history of human infections

Technique avoids the ethical and practical challenges of testing people directly.
  1. Smriti Mallapaty
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Blood-sucking mosquitoes have their uses. An innovative approach analysing their last blood meals can reveal evidence of infection in the people or animals that the flying insects feasted on.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04125-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 11 December 2022: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that researchers extracted millilitres of blood from mosquitoes, and that Ross River virus was related to dengue, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever.

References

  1. Pauvolid-Corrêa, A. & Komar, N. J. Am. Mosq. Control Assoc. 33, 237–240 (2017).

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  2. Štefanić, S., Grimm, F., Mathis, A., Winiger, R. & Verhulst, N. O. Curr. Res. Parasitol. Vector Borne Dis. 2, 100076 (2022).

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  3. Verhulst, N. O. et al. Med. Vet. Entomol. https://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12622 (2022).

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