Associate Professor Francesca Frentiu has been awarded $988,421.60 in the latest round of NHMRC Ideas Grant funding for the project, Combatting mosquito-borne encephalitic viruses: new biocontrol and risk prediction tools.
Chief investigator Professor Frentiu, Arbovirus Research Group Leader at CIIC, said the project’s aim was to develop novel mosquito control methods to stop transmission and control outbreaks of encephalitic viruses such as Japanese encephalitis and Murray Valley encephalitis and the closely related West Nile virus.
“Insecticides are the mainstay of the primary vector of these viruses, the Culex annulirostris mosquito, but their effects are diminishing as the mosquito has developed resistance,” Professor Frentiu. “To combat the spread of these viruses, we will develop a new mosquito biocontrol and test its efficacy in Culex annulirostris populations in Australia using molecular genomics and modelling. “We will identify areas in Australia at high risk of mosquito-borne encephalitic virus transmission for surveillance and provide practical new biocontrol and risk prediction tools for these viruses.”