Invasive weed could fuel malaria transmission

[内罗毕]一种侵入性的杂草可以在科学家发现新的证据表明它为雌性蚊子创造出良好的繁殖地后，可以升级东非的疟疾传播。malaria。

在一个studypublished inScientific Reports上个月，研究人员发现，该植物通常被称为“饥荒杂草”，从其根部释放了称为萜烯的化学物质，其根部具有“蚊子吸引香水的独特混合物”。

“它有利于疟疾传播蚊子的繁殖的发现只会加剧已经很糟糕的情况。”

内罗毕大学Eunice Anyango Owino

“This weed which is generally known to be toxic to both humans and家畜is readily ingested by malaria mosquitoes for sugars as a source of energy and it also tolerates its key toxin called parthenin,” says Baldwyn Torto, a co-author of the study and head of the behavioural and chemical ecology unit, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Kenya.

他补充说，随着成年雌性蚊子以科学称为杂草为食Parthenium hysterophorus，他们获得了糖，这是一种用于寻找繁殖伴侣的重要能源，并寻求人类咬住开发鸡蛋所需的血餐。

Torto tellsscidev.net那个从饥荒杂草化学物质污染的繁殖地出现的那位女性成年蚊子比正常情况长一周，增加了传播疟疾寄生虫的可能性。

Researchers assessed whether gravid (pregnant) female mosquitoes would prefer to lay their eggs in distilled water or water treated with a blend of terpenes extracted from famine weed roots. The weed that thrives in warmer climates is a native of north-east Mexico and is endemic in America.

“Gravid females were more attracted to lay eggs in the root exudate-treated water… than in the distilled water control,” the study says.

Eunice Anyango Owino, a medical entomologist at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi, Kenya, says that this weed could be considered as “the most destructive” globally.

“考虑到疟疾仍然是死亡率和发病率的主要原因，尤其是在childrenbelow five years old and pregnant women,” she explains.

Owino说，除了使用除草剂之外，还可以从水体中从水体中去除杂草，但她警告说，增加使用化学物质可能对环境有危险，购买和涂抹它们。beplay足球体育的微博

Torto adds that the fragrance produced by famine weed can be exploited to develop trapping tools to target egg laying females as part of disease surveillance and control.

乌龟解释说，天然敌人，例如钻孔的象鼻虫（Listrotus setosipennis) and the leaf-feeding beetle (Zygogramma bicolorata), which targets the vegetative and reproductive parts of the weed under differentbeplay足球体育的微博环境的conditions and habitats, could help curb its spread.

根据reportpublished in May by the International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences, the Kenyangovernmenthas imported these two insects for biological control of the weed that has now invaded at least 48 countries globally including Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

But Owino cautioned that the control of the invasive weed could be problematic as the plant’s rapid growth rate and numerous but small seeds make it very hard to control.

她告诉她说：“即使风，动物和水也可以轻松地将种子运送到新区域scidev.net。

这篇文章是由SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.