Auburn University researchers including Assistant Professor of Disease Ecology Sarah Zohdy, supported by the Alabama Department of Public Health, conducted a focused program of mosquito trapping in 2016 and 2017 to identify what mosquitos are out there and what they’re carrying. Among the findings: The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which hadn’t been reported in Alabama for 26 years, was found in Mobile, Alabama.
“It is very important that we have been able to collect aegypti,” she said, even though it’s not a complete surprise.
The whole region is suitable aegypti habitat, Stevens said, and they’ve been here before. “About 30 years ago we had aegypti all over the state in high numbers,” she said.
But then albopictus moved in and ran the old gang out of town. An abstract for the Auburn study notes that “interactions between these two species often result in displacement of Ae. aegypti.” Stevens said there are a variety or reason that can happen. One is that when female aegypti mate with male albopictus, no offspring are produced. That means fewer aegypti mosquito larvae (yay) to compete with the next generation of albopictus (boo).
Stevens said aegypti are more effective than albopictus at transferring Zika to people. And Zika remains a spooky virus: Its symptoms are mild and generic, but when it infects pregnant women it can cause severe birth defects; it can be transmitted between humans via sexual contact; and unlike West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis, there’s not a test to detect it in the blood of the Mobile County Health Department’s sentinel chickens.
