Chicken Scent Deters Malaria Mosquitoes

鸡散发的气味可驱疟蚊

The smell of a chicken wards off one species of malaria-spreading mosquito—meaning the scent compounds, or the birds themselves, might help deter disease. Christopher Intagliata reports.
鸡的味道可以驱赶传播疟疾的蚊子——主要靠鸡周遭的混合气味或者鸡的体味。

撰文/播音  Christopher Intagliata
翻译  郭丰茹
审校  丁可含

In Africa's battle against malaria, two low-tech tactics—insecticides and bed nets—have done a decent job killing off mosquitoes. "But it's mainly one species that's been affected. That's a species called Anopheles gambiae, sometimes called the African malaria mosquito.” Rickard Ignell, a chemical ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
在非洲，人们在和疟疾战斗的过程中，杀虫剂和蚊帐这两种低技术含量的方式灭蚊效果显著。“但是这种方式仅仅可以预防一种蚊子——冈比亚按蚊（ Anopheles gambiae），亦称作非洲疟蚊（African malaria mosquito）。” Rickard Ignell如是说，他是瑞典农业科学大学（Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences）的化学生态学家。

He says, despite that success, the problem is far from solved. For one, mosquitoes are developing resistance to insecticides. And two, there are many other species that can spread the disease. Including one that's common in the horn of Africa: Anopheles arabiensis.
如他所讲，尽管那两种方式很奏效，但是离彻底杜绝疟蚊还很遥远。举个例子来说，蚊子会在进化过程中产生耐药性。另外，还有其他很多种传播疟疾的蚊子。包括阿拉伯按蚊（Anopheles arabiensis），在非洲很常见。

Unlike the pickier gambiae, its palate is wide-ranging. Arabiensis sucks the blood of cattle, sheep, goats. But… not chickens. "First of all, chickens like mosquitoes. So they'll actively feed on mosquitoes and other insects. So avoiding chickens could be a way of surviving, and evolving a way of smelling the chickens could be an early warning system for them."
不像冈比亚按蚊那么挑剔，阿拉伯按蚊的口味更广。阿拉伯按蚊可以吸食奶牛、绵羊、山羊的血液。但是，不会吸食鸡的。“首先，鸡喜欢吃蚊子。它们会主动寻找蚊子和其他昆虫来吃。所以对蚊子来讲，避开鸡可能是一个绝好的生存的方式，而且避开有鸡气味的地方，可能是它们提前的警告系统。”

And it turns out, that aversion to chickens can be used against the insects. Ignell and his colleagues isolated chemical compounds from chicken feathers, and dispensed them next to a human sleeping under a bed net—a human lure. And they found that fewer mosquitoes came round for a snack, due to the repellent chemicals. The findings appear in the Malaria Journal. [Kassahun T. Jaleta et al., Chicken volatiles repel host-seeking malaria mosquitoes]
事实证明，利用对鸡厌恶这一点可以很好地对付昆虫。Ignell和他的同事从鸡的羽毛中分离出化合物，并且将该化合物放到熟睡的人的蚊帐周围。发现几乎没有蚊子去靠近，得益于那些具有防蚊效果的化学物质。这个研究结果发表于《疟疾》（Malaria Journal）。[Kassahun T. Jaleta et al., Chicken volatiles repel host-seeking malaria mosquitoes]

Ignell says this chicken cologne won't be immediately available. "Ideally the world would be like that, that we could bottle it up and send it off and they don't have to pay anything. But that's not the case obviously." Luckily, there's an equally effective substitute. "We can actually reduce the number of mosquitoes indoors by just using a chicken. So that's probably the cheapest option."
据Ignell所讲，这种有鸡体味的古龙水不会马上面世。“理论上来讲将会有那种古龙水，我们可以将它装在瓶子里挥洒在空气中，不会对人有任何的害处。但是现在还没出现 。”幸运地是，有相同效应的替代品。“事实上我们可以通过养鸡来减少室内蚊子的数量。那可能是最划算的选择。
—Christopher Intagliata