Achievement

Fellow Nick Ruktanonchai traveled to the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania during summer 2012 to work with Dr. Gerry Killeen and other entomologists to work on mosquito movement and oviposition behavior as it relates to malaria transmission. Nick was interested in their project involving the auto-dissemination of a larvicide (pyriproxyfen or PPF). They plan to douse cows with the larvicide so that mosquitoes will pick it up when they bite the cows and carry it back to the oviposition site. Eggs laid at an oviposition site containing PPF will result in larval death. The dispersal behavior of the mosquitoes and the locations of larval habitats and cows will therefore determine the efficacy of the PPF program. Nick is currently writing a grant along with recent PhD graduate, Samson Kiware, who is now working at the Ifakara Institute, to model the potential spread of PPF across the landscape to evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy in controlling mosquitoes and thus malaria.