Tracking the spread of Buruli ulcer with mosquito surveillance

Buruli ulcer is an emerging bacterial disease spreading across southeastern Australia, including parts of Victoria and more recently interstate into New South Wales. Despite increasing case numbers, scientists still do not fully understand how the bacterium Mycobacterium ulcerans moves through the environment or how humans become infected.

This project will investigate the ecology and spread of M. ulcerans using large-scale mosquito and environmental surveillance across Victoria. The student will work with mosquito samples collected from Buruli ulcer endemic regions, emerging risk areas, and locations where the disease has not yet been detected.

The project will involve setting up and maintaining mosquito traps, identifying mosquito species and screening them for M. ulcerans DNA using molecular techniques. 

Potential project components include:

• Field trips to urban and rural areas in and around Melbourne

• Mosquito identification and sorting

• DNA extraction and qPCR screening

• Investigation of mosquito species associated with disease risk

• Comparing endemic, emerging-risk, and disease-naïve regions

• Data analysis and visualisation in R

The project offers training in medical entomology, molecular biology, disease ecology, epidemiology, and public health surveillance. Students interested in infectious diseases, vector-borne diseases, wildlife ecology, urban ecology, microbiology, or One Health research are encouraged to apply.

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