Coated seeds may make birds mosquito-killing machines

Every year between spring and fall, many local governments and mosquito control districts in the US spray insecticides to kill mosquitoes. Now researchers in California and Colorado are testing another approach to manage populations of these potentially disease-carrying insects. The research teams are filling bird feeders with ivermectin-coated seeds. Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug, but it can also paralyze and kill mosquitoes that ingest a blood meal laced with ivermectin. In many African countries where malaria is widespread, scientists have been mass administering ivermectin to humans to control malaria. “So it’s basically an extension of that same idea,” said Brian Foy, a vector-borne infectious diseases expert at Colorado State University. He presented the work on Nov. 14 at the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene conference in New Orleans. In the continental US, West Nile virus is the most common mosquito-borne disease . Birds are the natural hosts of