Pest Management Professional, May 2017
2017 Mosquito ManageMent suppleMent GazinG into the o to mosquito all o crystal ball Art istock com t_ kimurA LoneLy__ on the cover istock com wrAgg Public health concerns over mosquitoes lead experts to predictive modeling By Gene White BCe Contributor W ho would have guessed that in 1999 when West Nile Virus WNV started its sweep across the United States a major paradigm shift would begin in the role pest management companies play in protecting peoples health It didnt take long for pest management professionals PMPs to begin conversations and lay the groundwork for a line of business ignored by most of the industry before this time Were talking about management plans for one of the most difficult and hideous pests of mankind the mosquito Mosquitoes are still the No 1 killer of humans whether its by transmission of a parasite malaria or by vectoring the three principal virus families Bunyaviridae Flaviviridae and Togaviridae that cause the majority of encephalitic illnesses in humans Many arboviral arthropodborne virus encephalitides have a global distribution and until recently there were five main virus agents of encephalitis in the U S St Louis encephalitis SLE Eastern equine encephalitis EEE Western equine encephalitis WEE and La Crosse LAC encephalitis Things change of course Now the emergence and local transmission of four relatively new viruses to the Americas have captured the attention of pathologists medical entomologists the news media and therefore the public as well as PMPs These four mosquito borne illnesses include WNV 1999 dengue fever 1980 chikungunya 2014 in Florida 2015 in Texas and Zika virus 2016 in Texas and Florida With local transmission of chikungunya and Zika virus in their infancy within the continental borders of the U S it is likely human infections will increase moving into the 2017 mosquito season When and where these outbreaks occur will be MM4 May 2017 Pest Management Professional mypmp net
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