The Asian Tiger Mosquito

MARK COLVIN: Australian scientists are ramping up their fight against an exotic mosquito that's rapidly spreading around the world and bringing major health problems with it.

The Asian Tiger Mosquito is named for its striped body and aggressive bloodlust. Scientists have begun breeding the mosquito in a Brisbane laboratory to prepare for a possible invasion, which they say is inevitable.

Brad Ryan reports.

BRAD RYAN: It takes a special kind of bravery to put an arm inside a cage that's buzzing with bloodthirsty mosquitoes.

LEON HUGO: There's a stinging sensation.

BRAD RYAN: It's lunchtime for these hungry research subjects, and Leon Hugo's right arm is the meal.

LEON HUGO: It is a painful bite. It is a part of the job that we need to do. Mosquitoes need blood to reproduce, so in order for us to have these mosquito colonies to work with, we need to provide blood.

BRAD RYAN: In recent decades the aedes albopictus, or Asian Tiger Mosquito, has spread from south-east Asia into Africa, Europe and the Americas. But the laboratory-bred colony in Brisbane is the only one in mainland Australia - for now.

GREG DEVINE: Aedes albopictus is the most invasive mosquito in the world. It exists on every single continent apart from Antarctica and Australia at the moment, and of course it's already in the Torres Strait Islands, but it's not on mainland Australia yet.

BRAD RYAN: Associate professor Greg Devine heads the Mosquito Control Laboratory at Brisbane's QIMR Berghofer research centre. He says the Asian Tiger Mosquito is such a persistent biter, it could threaten Australia's outdoor way of life.

It's changed lifestyles in places like Rome, where it's exploded in population since arriving in the nineties.

GREG DEVINE: You think of a traditional Italian lifestyle - there's a lot of public places that people like to go and walk in the evenings, and for a lot of people in Rome that's become very difficult. Public spaces like the central cemetery in Rome, like the botanical gardens, they have such high biting pressures from aedes albopictus that people really don't have the same use of those spaces as they used to.

BRAD RYAN: Of greater concern is the health threat. The mosquito carries diseases such as dengue and Ross River virus and has recently been blamed for infecting tens of thousands of people in Papua New Guinea with a virus called chikungunya, which causes debilitating joint pain and can last for months or years.

GREG DEVINE: It's possible that when aedes albopictus comes in and then we have a very big distribution of a mosquito, which will run all the way from the Torres Strait right down to Hobart, then under certain conditions maybe that's going to be the mosquito that's going to vector or transmit chikungunya particularly well.

BRAD RYAN: Professor Andreas Suhrbier says having access to the mosquitoes will help his research into chikungunya and what Australia should do to prepare for an outbreak.

ANDREAS SUHRBIER : All bets are off, basically. If that mosquito becomes established in Australia, that opens the door for a chikungunya epidemic coming to Australia.

BRAD RYAN: Researchers are also keen to find out how the mosquitoes will interact with native Australian species.

Associate professor Greg Devine:

GREG DEVINE: We want to know whether albopictus is eventually going to displace all those native mosquitoes and then become super-abundant.

BRAD RYAN: Quarantine authorities are still fighting to keep the mosquito out off the mainland and they've successfully dealt with incursions at ports in Cairns, Townsville, and Darwin in recent years. But associate professor Greg Devine says invasion is inevitable.

GREG DEVINE: It is absolutely just a matter of time and of course no-one can predict exactly what that timescale is but we know once it gets into places, it spreads pretty quickly. If you look at the spread throughout the north-east of the United States or throughout Italy and France and the Mediterranean countries then things start happening pretty quickly once it's become established.

MARK COLVIN: Associate professor Greg Devine ending Brad Ryan's report.