What GDG can offer         

Virus detection in mosquitoes

GDG has a lab dedicated to the identification of mosquitoes species and virus detection. Every year, we receive requests for detection of West Nile Virus (WNV) or Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) in mosquito populations. We are certified by Health Canada's National Microbiolgy Laboratory (viral zoonoses), which certifies our WNV and EEE detection protocoles. The majority of our clients are in Ontario.

We also have traps for adult mosquito captures. Our knowledge of mosquito species and their behaviour allows us to identify the best places to capture the target mosquitoes in a given environment.

WNV control program

GDG Environment has the equipment and the expertise needed to perform a WNV mosquito control program. Catch basins are the priority target since they are the prime larval development sites for Culex mosquitoes. Standing water sites are  also treated. We have numerous control programs in Ontario and 80% of these programs are done with bicycles, thus respecting the green label of some municipalities. For more information please contact us.  

WNV, what is it?

« West Nile virus (WNv) is first and foremost a bird virus. The main feature of the North American strain is a very high mortality rate in birds. Amongst certains species like crows, more than half the population died during the first encounter with the virus  (from "Découverte" - Radio-Canada / http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/decouverte/reportages/2002/10-2002/2002_27oct/virus_nil.html). To date, at least 110 bird species would be infected in America. The most affected species are corvids: ravens, crows and blue jays. Mosquitoes, especially from the Culex genus, spread the virus after contracting the disease by taking blood from carrier birds. Those mosquitoes start an infection chain by biting other birds. Eventually, when conditions are favourable, a WNV carrier mosquito will transmit the virus to reptiles, amphibians or mammals, including humans. 

Most people who are infected with West Nile virus will not develop any type of illness or, in mild cases, there may be flu-like symptoms. Exceptionnaly, in more serious situations, meningitis and encpehalitis have been reported. 

WNV has been discovered in 1937 in Uganda, then throughout Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. It appeared recently in North  America, in 1999, in New York. Since then, it has spread in all America. It has been observed for the first time in Canada in 2001, in Ontario. In Canada and in the United States, the number of infected mosquitoes and infected humans varies from year to year depending on the weather conditions, which directly influence the virus multiplication in mosquitoes and propagation in bird populations. (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/wnv-vwn/index-eng.php / http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm).