Brownsville lab tests for mosquito-borne illnesses

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Brownsville is home to nearly 50 varieties of mosquitoes. The city now has its own lab to track mosquito-borne illnesses. City health officials said the outbreak of the Zika virus a few years ago gave them a sense of urgency to create the new facility.

Brownsville began its mosquito surveillance program in 2009, with only 2-3 traps, according to the city's medical entomologist, Yaziri Gonzalez. Now, she said, there are 35 traps spread out across the city to monitor mosquito activity.

“On a weekly basis, I look at like almost 500 different mosquitoes,” Gonzalez said.

Public health officials describe Brownsville as a unique location for the lab because it's one of the few places in Texas where mosquitoes are present all year round. Before the lab opened earlier this year, all the collected samples were sent to state health officials in Austin for testing.

Brownsville's Director of Health, Wellness and Animal Services, Art Rodriguez, said it would usually take at least a week to get those results. “Now the city, through the laboratory, which is a new concept for us, has been able to get results in 24 to 36 hours.”

Gonzalez said the state only does regular mosquito testing between May and the end of November. She said this has caused issues when Brownsville has found suspected cases of Dengue Fever in December.

Gonzalez said, “If we want to monitor mosquitoes before an outbreak, before a suspected case, they don’t do that. So, during those off-months, we don’t know what’s going on.”

Mosquito traps are checked weekly, and the samples are taken back to the lab where they're flash-frozen before any research or testing can begin.

Opening the freezer, where the temperature is typically set at -60 degrees Fahrenheit, Gonzalez said, “We just kind of plop it in there. And once the sample has frozen for five minutes, we’re going to take it out, and it’s going to be a little crispy.”

Director Rodriguez explained to the scientists, “Check for speciation, what type of species they are, and if those species can potentially bring certain kinds of diseases.”

If one of the mosquitoes does test positive for disease, Gonzalez said the city then carries out "intense treatment", with mosquito abatement efforts in the area where the sample was collected. City workers go to the scene to kill any mosquito larvae they find to disrupt the life cycle.

“We’re not just going to have a bunch of data and be like, oh well, we saw this. No, we are going to go out and help the community and ensure that we don’t have any outbreaks,” Gonzalez said.

Brownsville has also developed a mobile app, called Brownsville Mosquito Notices, where residents can report high mosquito activity and submit service requests.

Rodriguez said the lab is focused on mosquitoes right now, but it can be scaled up to study other disease-carrying insects like ticks and kissing bugs.

The lab can form interlocal agreements with other cities to test their mosquito population, as well. Gonzalez said there have already been discussions with other communities about expanding the program, but at this time, no agreements have been finalized.