Queensland researchers have begun breeding an aggressive and potentially dangerous mosquito species as they prepare for it to invade mainland Australia.
The Aedes albopictus, also known as the Asian tiger mosquito, is named for its striped body and aggressive bloodlust.
It is thought to be the most invasive mosquito in the world and has caused epidemics that have affected millions of people.
Scientists at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane are now breeding the mosquito in order to study its potential threat to Australia.
It has spread from South-East Asia to parts of Europe, Africa and the Americas in recent decades and has become established in the Torres Strait Islands in far north Queensland over the past 10 years.
The head of QIMR Berghofer's Mosquito Control Laboratory, Associate Professor Greg Devine, says the species will inevitably find its way into mainland Australia.
"It is absolutely only a matter of time and of course no-one can predict what that time-scale is, but we know once it gets into places it spreads pretty quickly," he said.
Disease threat could spread fast
The mosquito is capable of spreading diseases including dengue, Ross River virus and a condition called chikungunya, which causes debilitating joint pain and can last for months or years.
Immunovirologist Professor Andreas Suhrbier says the mosquito has helped the virus infect tens of thousands of people in Papua New Guinea.
"This virus has the capacity to spread fairly quickly in new environments," Professor Suhrbier said.
"If that mosquito becomes established in Australia, that opens the door for a chikungunya epidemic."
Associate Professor Devine says the mosquito is an incessant biter that has affected how people live in some parts of the world.
"The abundance of Aedes albopictus can get very high, and so people can experience things like 20 or 30 bites per minute," he said.
"When things get at that sort of level of annoyance, then clearly it really changes the way people use recreational spaces and the way that they enjoy themselves, and that's why it's called the 'barbecue stopper'."
Research continues under tight conditions
He says the mosquitoes are being kept under strict biosecurity conditions in a Brisbane laboratory.
"Now that we've got the mozzies here, then at least in a lab environment we can begin to look at how they interact with other Australian mosquitoes," Associate Professor Devine said.
"We want to know whether [Aedes] albopictus is going to eventually displace all those native mosquitoes and then become super-abundant."
Professor Suhrbier says there are still many unanswered questions about how well the mosquito could transmit disease in Australia.
"We're worried about chikungunya," he said.
"We want to make sure we are at the forefront of working out what we should best do if this virus came here, and of course helping those countries where it's already occurred.
"The more that we can understand about this virus, how it's transmitted, how it manages to so quickly spread in a population, the better off we're going to be if it eventually does get here."