United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, Florida 32608, USA.
Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2013 Aug;13(4):372-8. doi: 10.1097/ACI.0b013e3283624544.
To describe the current efforts to use biological control agents to reduce fire ant population levels, thus ultimately reducing the number of human sting and allergic reaction incidents.
Climate change and worldwide fire ant expansion will increase the frequency of human encounters and allergenic events, putting additional pressure on the public health sector. Six species of fire ant decapitating flies are now established in the United States. The microsporidium Kneallhazia solenopsae is well established and new fire ant hosts have been identified. The fire ant virus Solenopsis invicta virus 3 shows good potential for use as an environmentally friendly biopesticide because of its virulence and host specificity.
During separate founding events in the United States, Australia, mainland China, and Taiwan, fire ants native to South America escaped their native pathogens and parasites. Consequently, fire ant populations in these introduced regions pose a serious public health threat to the human populations by envenomation and subsequent allergic reactions. Specific, self-sustaining biological control agents have been discovered, studied, and released into fire ant populations in the United States in an effort to re-establish an ecological/competitive balance, resulting in reduced fire ant densities and human exposure.
描述目前利用生物防治剂来降低红火蚁种群水平的努力，从而最终减少人类被螫和过敏反应事件的数量。
气候变化和世界范围内红火蚁的扩张将增加人类遭遇和过敏事件的频率，给公共卫生部门带来更大的压力。目前，已有 6 种红火蚁斩首蝇在 美国定殖。微孢子虫 Kneallhazia solenopsae 已被广泛研究，并且已经确定了新的红火蚁宿主。红火蚁病毒 Solenopsis invicta virus 3 因其毒性和宿主特异性，有望成为一种环保型生物农药。
在南美洲红火蚁分别于美国、澳大利亚、中国大陆和台湾的独立传入事件中，红火蚁逃离了其原生的病原体和寄生虫。因此，这些引入地区的红火蚁种群对人类构成了严重的公共卫生威胁，其通过螫刺和随后的过敏反应导致人类中毒。在美国，人们已经发现、研究并释放了特定的、自我维持的生物防治剂，以重新建立生态/竞争平衡，从而降低红火蚁的密度和人类的暴露程度。
