CAES Newswire

 College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences UGA Cooperative Extension
Menu
Published on 08/06/20

UGA’s black fly lab to be supported with NIH contract

By Elmer Gray

The University of Georgia Black Fly Rearing and Bioassay Laboratory has been awarded a contract with the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to provide partial support for the world's only black fly colony.

The site, which will operate as the NIH/NIAID-supported Black Fly Research and Resource Center, received $109,790 in funding for the first year, with the possibility of three years of renewal. This support forms a collaborative effort between NIH/NIAID and the UGA Department of Entomology to continue the operation of this one-of-a-kind resource.

Professor Darold Batzer of the Department of Entomology in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is the principal investigator for this effort, and entomology researcher Elmer Gray will be the assistant project director. Ray Noblet, a former head of the department, will serve as scientific advisor to the project.

The laboratory was established at UGA in 1999 when Noblet and Gray arrived at the university. The black fly colony is a unique resource that was initiated in 1981 at Cornell University. Black flies (Diptera Simuliidae) require flowing water to complete their life cycle. The colony simulates this environment with nine aquatic rearing units that create miniature rivers for the larval and pupal stages to develop. Each unit can support approximately 300,000 larvae. Adult flies emerge within the rearing units and are captured, mated and provided moistened substrates to serve as egg laying sites.

The colony has been used for a variety of research projects through the years, including a wide range of vector transmission studies, environmental monitoring, vector control and larval feeding studies. The laboratory continues to conduct and collaborate on a wide range of research projects and provides all stages of the black fly life cycle to collaborating laboratories.

Current research being conducted in the laboratory involves larvicidal efficacy evaluations, topical repellent evaluations and growth studies related to climate change. The laboratory has also served as a preferred site for teaching and educational outreach visits for a wide range of graduate, undergraduate and high school students.

The NIH/NIAID support will help to ensure the continued maintenance of this very unique resource and will serve to stimulate additional research with black flies and the disease pathogens that they can vector. An important aspect of this support is that it will increase the awareness of this site, thereby increasing its impact in the public health/vector biology field.

In addition, the Black Fly Research and Resource Center will work in parallel with the NIH-supported Filariasis Research Reagent Resource Center (FR3) that is directed by Andy Moorhead in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine. The mission of FR3 is to provide filarial-related biological products to researchers across North America. The combination of these two unique facilities at the University of Georgia only further demonstrates the university’s commitment to research excellence.

More information on the UGA Black Fly Research and Resource Center is available at site.caes.uga.edu/blackflylab/about.

Elmer Gray is a Cooperative Extension entomologist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Authors:
Elmer Gray
Experts/Sources:
Darold P Batzer
Elmer Gray
Elmer Gray (shown) will serve as assistant project director for the Black Fly Research and Resource Center. Gray helped establish UGA's Black Fly Rearing and Bioassay Laboratory in 1999 with Ray Noblet, former head of the entomology department, who will serve as scientific advisor to the project.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Download Image
A seldom recognized and underappreciated benefit of community clean-up programs is the permanent elimination of larval mosquito habitats. Some of the most common mosquito pests around the world develop in the containers, litter, debris and used tires that are commonly collected during a clean-up event. CAES News
Community clean-ups are an important part of mosquito management 03/11/24 Elmer Gray
Spring is approaching and now is a great time to schedule a community clean-up event. These events can be organized by citizens, civic groups or local governments and often have a theme or targeted area in a town or community. Clean-up events provide many benefits to a community including raising the awareness of litter prevention, developing pride in our communities and restoring the natural environment.
Exterior of the Administration Building front entrance on a blue sky spring day. CAES News
Newest round of Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants awarded 03/05/24 Olivia Randall
Ten university-wide projects devoted to advancing interdisciplinary research across multiple application areas have been awarded Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants as part of the 2023 cohort. The Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program was launched in 2017 and offered again in 2019 and 2021 through a partnership between the offices of Research and Public Service and Outreach. These 10 awards were chosen from 70 proposals and reflect a commitment of $1 million from UGA President Jere W. Morehead.
Ron Walcott CAES News
Finding a sense of place 02/29/24 Emily Cabrera
Ron Walcott, University of Georgia vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, was first a doctoral student at the UGA Tifton campus. As a UGA administrator and professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, Walcott helps students and colleagues find their sense of place at the university and has a legacy of increasing diversity in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Iteago Felton with the animals at his family's farm, 3T Farms in Lincolnton, Georgia. CAES News
Farm Again program helps veterans reconnect with the land 02/13/24 Carlisa Johnson
For many veterans, returning to civilian life is a stark shift from their fast-paced and service-based military life. When you combine this with the more than 4.7 million veterans who have service-based disabilities, the challenges of re-entry compound. The University of Georgia is working to assist Georgia’s veterans with this transition through its dynamic farming program, Farm Again.
Illustrated by Katie Walker and Megan McCoy CAES News
CAES associate dean of academic affairs retires after 47 years of student advocacy 01/25/24 Claire Sanders Kinnard
There are more than 20,000 living alumni of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Among them are U.S. representatives, renowned environmental scientists, governors, leaders of national corporations, and a host of successful agricultural producers, among leaders in many other professions. Despite the differences in their college experiences and career trajectories, for many of these alumni, there is one unifying individual in their memories of CAES: Josef Broder.
SilverleafWhitefly CAES News
CAES researchers secure $4 million to tackle silverleaf whitefly problem 01/11/24 Emily Cabrera
A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences recently renewed a $4 million contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service to build upon their previous work to develop targeted interventions to mitigate the impact of silverleaf whiteflies on vegetable production in the Southeast. UGA entomologist Allen Moore leads the research team in collaboration with USDA ARS in Charleston, South Carolina.