03 May 2010

Mosquitoes Prefer blood of Beer Drinkers

According to a recent study made in Burkina Faso, mosquitoes are prefering the blood of beer drinkers over the blood of water drinkers. In the study researchers exposed mosquitoes to body odors from both water drinkers and beer drinkers and found out that beer drinker's whole body odour (breath and skin emanations) is a strong stimulus to gauge human attractiveness to mosquitoes.

Body odours of volunteers who consumed beer increased mosquito activation (proportion of mosquitoes engaging in take-off and up-wind flight) and orientation (proportion of mosquitoes flying towards volunteers' odours). The level of exhaled carbon dioxide and body temperature had no effect on human attractiveness to mosquitoes. Despite individual volunteer variation, beer consumption consistently increased attractiveness to mosquitoes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggest that beer consumption is a risk factor for malaria and needs to be integrated into public health policies for the design of control measures. [src.]

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