Carbon dioxide that we breathe and the smell of sweat that comes out of the skin turned out to be a guide way for the female mosquito that was hunting humans as prey as well as the right host the spread of diseases, like malaria, dengue, and yellow fever. It was revealed through research entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, United States.
The report, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology reveals that the blast of carbon dioxide from the breath is the first signal that is detected by mosquitoes. Further, the insect has to follow the smell of human sweat.
The results of studies Ring Carde, entomology professor at the University of California, and Teun Dekker, who has been involved in the Laboratory Carde and now teaches at the Swedish University of Agricultural Research, may provide clues to how the smell can be used in cage traps to deter and catch poachers mosquito host .
In the laboratory, scientists remove the yellow fever mosquito spreading disease to a wind tunnel that is specially made for this study, and record its flight path. They found that mosquitoes fly upwind only briefly when carbon dioxide is only a little, but the mosquitoes will continue to fly upwind when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air so thick and indicate the presence of live prey.
"Carbon dioxide induces the orientation of the fly against the wind much more quickly and directly than body odor," said Carde. "Our experiments show that the yellow fever mosquito response to the odor of the body requires a longer exposure than carbon dioxide to trigger the mosquitoes fly upwind."
Yellow fever is a disease caused by a virus that killed about 300 thousand people worldwide every year. Dengue fever, another viral disease, infects 50 million to 100 million people each year, killing 12.5 million people. *** [SCIENCEDAILY | UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE | KORAN TEMPO 3669]
The results of studies Ring Carde, entomology professor at the University of California, and Teun Dekker, who has been involved in the Laboratory Carde and now teaches at the Swedish University of Agricultural Research, may provide clues to how the smell can be used in cage traps to deter and catch poachers mosquito host .
In the laboratory, scientists remove the yellow fever mosquito spreading disease to a wind tunnel that is specially made for this study, and record its flight path. They found that mosquitoes fly upwind only briefly when carbon dioxide is only a little, but the mosquitoes will continue to fly upwind when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air so thick and indicate the presence of live prey.
"Carbon dioxide induces the orientation of the fly against the wind much more quickly and directly than body odor," said Carde. "Our experiments show that the yellow fever mosquito response to the odor of the body requires a longer exposure than carbon dioxide to trigger the mosquitoes fly upwind."
Yellow fever is a disease caused by a virus that killed about 300 thousand people worldwide every year. Dengue fever, another viral disease, infects 50 million to 100 million people each year, killing 12.5 million people. *** [SCIENCEDAILY | UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE | KORAN TEMPO 3669]
