Prof. Carlos Brisola alerts for the lack of mosquito identifiers and offers services

To contribute in the formation of new mosquito identification experts, Prof. Carlos Brisola made himself available to lecture formation courses

There are hundreds of arboviruses, many still unknown, wondering around in nature. In addition, Brazil is being invaded by new ones, as Zika and West Nile viruses. The remaining question is: what if these viruses adapt to the Countrys mosquitoes? Is their enough skilled personnel to identify the vectors? For the entomologist Carlos Brisola, it is past the time for such theme to become a national concern.

According to him, if the arboviruses manage to adapt to our insects (not the urban, most known ones), we will have to rush to form skilled personnel. It is very dangerous to train firemen after the fire has started. There are many examples of flaws that lead to disasters, as the lack to identify the West Nile virus in New York (due to a dwindling public health funding, according to Roehrig, 2013), allowing it to quickly spread across the USA and all continent, he reminds.

Brazil has the worlds largest mosquito fauna with approximately 520 of the 3,700 described species, and their distribution and biology are little known.

This is why it is so important to have skilled professionals to collect, preserve and identify the mosquitoes, preferably using external morphology. This means not only being able to recognize the Aedes aegypti, Ae. albopictus, Anopheles or Culex, but identifying at genus level and, if possible, at species level of any well preserved mosquito, he alerts.

Capacitation

As an alternative to contribute to the formation of new mosquito identification experts, Dr. Brisola has put himself available to lecture formation courses. The work can be developed anywhere equipped with a magnifying glass with 40x enlargement (if possible, 80x), electricity, data show (projector), and, if possible, internet for 10 to 15 students at a time.

Obviously, a course as this will not be able to qualify personnel at a Master’s degree or specialization levels, as available at São Paulo University Public Health School (FSP/USP) or at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, but the students will gain a good base to develop their work and progress while co-working with more experienced professionals. And it will be much cheaper and quicker than sending dozens of students to these courses, stresses the researcher, whose curriculum can be accessed through http://goo.gl/MJ8mAO

For him, the under graduation and technical institutions have given little encouragement to qualify people for this work. The students are usually sent to laboratories using advanced molecular techniques, since this is how they will follow their studies and achieve jobs in the future, regrets the entomologists, shortly retired as Lead Professor at the Santa Catarina Federal University (UFSC).

My work would be charged for a negotiable value, besides transportation and housing. The courses would preferably ministered in a week, with 40 hours duration, including several activities as collection, preservation, taxonomy, biology and disease control and relations. The activities would take place at daytime and night, including several field collection methods, he explains.

Doctor Brisola can be contacted by the following e-mail: cbrisolamarcondes@gmail.com…