Steph Andreescu: First Three Weeks with St. Lawrence County Public Health Department

I've just wrapped up my first three weeks interning with the St. Lawrence County Department of Health at SUNY Potsdam, working on mosquito-borne disease surveillance through NEVBD. I've settled into my role and everyday tasks quickly, and have picked up a variety of new skills over the past few weeks.

My time so far has been split between mornings in the field, learning our mosquito surveillance methods, and afternoons in the lab, learning to ID and sort our captured specimens. We set and check several types of traps, each designed to capture mosquitoes engaged in a different behavior: CDC CO2 light traps, which use light and dry ice to attract host-seeking females overnight; gravid traps, which draw in egg-laying females with pans of stagnant water; and black resting boxes, which we check for mosquitoes sheltering after a blood meal. To collect from the resting boxes, we use aspirators, handheld vacuums, built for the job. A couple of photos of our aspirator and a gravid trap are attached below! I've grown comfortable with the daily flow, including the morning drives out to our collection sites across St. Lawrence County with the other interns.

In the lab, I've focused on building my identification skills. Early on I relied heavily on dichotomous keys and the microscope to work through every specimen, but over the past few weeks I've grown more confident in my pattern recognition. Now, I am able to recognize mosquitoes more quickly and some without the help of the keys. I'm also learning DNA extraction and PCR techniques for an upcoming project: blood meal analysis of Uranotaenia sapphirina, a tiny, unique mosquito species that feeds primarily on invertebrates rather than vertebrates.

Overall, it's been an exciting and rewarding first three weeks, and I'm looking forward to sharpening my skills as the summer continues!






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