130 - What exactly do you do during the winter months as a northern MAD?

Abstract: I am constantly asked what I do during the winter months when there are no mosquitoes out. Two simple words are my response - Collaborate and Plan! The Northwest Mosquito Abatement District is lucky to have amazing collaborators in our area, state, Midwest region and nationally. Many of these projects are spurred on by being a partner with the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Diseases (MCE-VBD). Our partnership with MCE-VBD allowed us to host a graduate student to work on several important research questions. We get to leverage our surveillance and operations to provide data and samples to our collaborators. In return, we get access to world class professors, researchers, graduate, and undergraduate students interested in all aspects of vector-borne diseases. Our collaborators have skill sets, laboratory facilities and resources to help us answer questions we cannot answer by ourselves. I’ll be discussing many of these collaborations and results.