{"id":3929,"date":"2026-01-15T14:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/mosquitoes-are-thirsty-for-human-blood\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T14:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:04:23","slug":"mosquitoes-are-thirsty-for-human-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/mosquitoes-are-thirsty-for-human-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Mosquitoes are thirsty for human blood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-01-15 14:04:21<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>Mosquitoes are increasingly turning to humans for their next meal as biodiversity loss strips them of traditional animal hosts, scientists have warned.<BR><br \/>\nNew research from Brazil\u2019s Atlantic Forest \u2014 one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth \u2014 shows that mosquitoes are now far more likely to feed on people than wildlife, even inside protected forest reserves. <BR><br \/>\nThe shift raises serious concerns about the spread of dangerous mosquito-borne diseases.<BR><br \/>\nResearchers believe habitat destruction is driving the change. As deforestation and human activity shrink forest ecosystems, many animals disappear \u2014 leaving mosquitoes with fewer blood sources and pushing them towards people instead.<BR><br \/>\nJeronimo Alencar, the study\u2019s senior author from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro, said: &#8220;Here we show that the mosquito species we captured in remnants of the Atlantic Forest have a clear preference for feeding on humans.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nSergio Machado, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, added: &#8220;This is crucial because in an environment like the Atlantic Forest with a great diversity of potential vertebrate hosts, a preference for humans significantly enhances the risk of pathogen transmission.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nTo find out what mosquitoes were feeding on, scientists captured insects from two natural reserves in Rio de Janeiro state. In the lab, they analysed the blood inside female mosquitoes using DNA sequencing to identify its source.<BR><br \/>\nOut of 1,714 mosquitoes collected, 145 had recently fed. Researchers were able to identify blood sources in 24 of them, revealing meals from 18 different humans, six birds, one amphibian, one dog and one mouse. Some mosquitoes had fed on more than one species.<BR><br \/>\nMachado explained: &#8220;With fewer natural options available, mosquitoes are forced to seek new, alternative blood sources.<BR><br \/>\n&#8220;They end up feeding more on humans out of convenience as we are the most prevalent host in these areas.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nThe findings are troubling because mosquitoes in the Atlantic Forest can carry viruses responsible for yellow fever, dengue, Zika, chikungunya, Mayaro and Sabi\u00e1 \u2014 all of which pose serious health risks.<BR><br \/>\nResearchers warn that increased contact between mosquitoes and humans could make outbreaks more likely, particularly as ecosystems continue to degrade.<BR><br \/>\nMachado said: &#8220;Knowing that mosquitoes in an area have a strong preference for humans serves as an alert for transmission risk.&#8221;<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-01-15 14:04:21 Mosquitoes are increasingly turning to humans for their next meal as biodiversity loss strips them of traditional animal hosts, scientists have warned. New research from Brazil\u2019s Atlantic Forest&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3930,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions\/3930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}