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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 3/15/2016 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The US Department of Agriculture has a long history of collaborating with the US military to conduct research in support of war efforts. The predecessor laboratory of the current USDA-ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology (CMAVE) located in Gainesville, Florida has a history that starts in 1932 in Orlando, Florida specifically to support the Department of Defense. In Orlando methods were developed to protect deployed military troops by controlling mosquitoes, including malaria vectors under conditions simulating those of the South Pacific jungles, and other insects affecting man and animals. Currently the staff of the Mosquito and Fly Research Unit of CMAVE works closely with the Armed Forces to enhance our ability to protect troops who are by the nature of deployments particularly susceptible to bite from vector arthropod species and the disease that they transmit. We describe results from one program at CMAVE to protect deployed military troops from the threat of vector-borne diseases by developing new application strategies to control vectors of disease under harsh (tropical and desert) environmental conditions. We describe adaptation of currently used civilian ground and aerial ULV and Thermal fog techniques to kill adult mosquitoes, filth flies and sand flies. Also described are novel residual treatments of materials organic to military deployed units such as camouflage nettings and HESCO barriers, and residual treatments of naturally occurring vegetation. The field studies described here are being assessed and integrated into new military strategies to protect US troops at elevated risk from numerous vector-borne disease threats. |
