Who are mosquitoes really biting? Using DNA to track mosquito blood meals

Mosquitoes do not just bite humans, they also feed on birds, pets, livestock, and wildlife. Understanding which animals mosquitoes prefer to feed on is critical for understanding how mosquito-borne diseases spread through the environment. These feeding patterns may also differ substantially between urban, suburban, and rural landscapes, where the availability of humans, domestic animals, and wildlife varies dramatically. Exploring how mosquito host choice changes across these environments can provide important insights into disease risk and transmission pathways.

The student will work with mosquito species such as Aedes notoscriptus and use molecular approaches to identify the animal source of mosquito blood meals. The project has two major components, with the possibility of a third field-based component depending on student interest and project progression.

Part 1: Method development in the laboratory

The first part of the project will focus on refining and validating molecular bloodmeal analysis methods under controlled laboratory conditions. The student will conduct mosquito feeding experiments to better understand how accurately bloodmeal sources can be identified and how this changes over time after feeding.

An important component of this work will be investigating whether mosquitoes can be reliably identified as having fed on more than one host species during a single gonotrophic cycle. Detecting these “dual bloodmeals” could provide valuable insights into mosquito feeding ecology and may help explain how pathogens move between wildlife, domestic animals, and humans, particularly in zoonotic disease systems.

This component may include:

• Rearing and handling mosquitoes in the laboratory

• Conducting controlled mosquito feeding experiments

• Testing how long blood meals remain detectable after feeding

• Exploring whether mosquitoes feed on multiple hosts

• DNA extraction and molecular laboratory techniques

• High-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis

Part 2: Analysis of field-collected mosquitoes

The second part of the project will apply these methods to mosquitoes already collected through surveillance programs from different environments across Victoria. The student will investigate which animals mosquitoes are feeding on and whether feeding patterns differ between urban, suburban, and rural landscapes.

The project will also assess whether dual bloodmeals occur in wild mosquito populations. These findings could reveal important links between host use, mosquito behaviour, and disease transmission pathways.

This component may include:

• Processing field-collected mosquito samples

• Identifying bloodmeal sources from wild mosquitoes

• Comparing mosquito feeding behaviour across environments

• Investigating mixed or dual bloodmeals in field samples

• Data analysis and visualisation in R

Optional Part 3: Field collections (Masters only)

Depending on project development there may also be opportunities to participate in mosquito trapping and field collections.

This project offers training across molecular biology, entomology, disease ecology, and genomics, and would suit students interested in infectious diseases, wildlife ecology, One Health, vector biology, or emerging technologies in biological research.

This project is a collaboration between Dr. Véronique Paris from the University of Melbourne and Dr. Peter Mee from AgriBio Victoria. The student will work across both institutions

Interested? Email Dr. Véronique Paris veronique.paris@unimelb.edu.au or Dr. Peter Mee peter.mee@agriculture.vic.gov.au