Home / Science / Mosquito researcher shares daring blood-feeding secrets
Mosquito researcher shares daring blood-feeding secrets
13 Oct
Summary
- Researchers feed on blood from 250 mosquitoes weekly for experiments.
- Lab-bred mosquitoes are safe; overseas specimens require quarantine.
- Strict protocols prevent disease spread between researchers and mosquitoes.
Dr. Véronique Paris, a medical entomologist at the University of Melbourne, openly shares her unconventional research practices. She and her team regularly feed hundreds of mosquitoes on their own blood to sustain colonies used for studying disease transmission.
Paris, who has garnered a significant online following, clarifies that while most lab-bred mosquitoes pose minimal risk, overseas specimens require careful handling. These foreign colonies are collected as eggs and subject to strict quarantine regulations due to a slight possibility of carrying pathogens.
Researchers adhere to rigorous safety protocols. These include avoiding cross-feeding mosquitoes between different researchers and undergoing screening after traveling to regions with active mosquito-borne diseases. These measures are in place to ensure the negligible risk of pathogen transmission is kept as small as possible.
