Study: Mosquitoes Can Smell Malaria

Malaria infection makes mice smell a bit better to mosquitoes, raising the odds that they’ll be bitten and spread the disease. That’s according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research could point the way to a Breathalyzer-style diagnostic test for malaria infection.

And it’s the latest example of how parasites manipulate the creatures they infect for their own nefarious aims.

Penn State University biologist Mark Mescher has seen it before. But not in people, in squash.

When squash plants are infected with cucumber mosaic virus, they produce chemicals that attract aphids. The aphids pick up the virus when they come to the plant for the advertised meal.

The virus even goes an extra step: It makes the plant less nutritious to the insects. After a few bites, Mescher said, the aphids “don’t like the plant very much. So, rather than staying there for the long term they move on and go to the next plant,” spreading the virus with them.

Mescher wondered if something similar was happening with malaria. A couple of studies in people and birds have suggested mosquitoes prefer the malaria-infected over the uninfected. But the studies did not explain why.

Remainder of article here: Study: Mosquitoes Can Smell Malaria