ment is contracted during outdoor activities at home or on base.

Keeping warfighters safe An integral component of NECE is the Deployed Warfi ghter Protection Program, an initiative administered by the Armed Forces Pest Manage- ment Board that develops and tests novel methods to protect deployed American military personnel from insect-borne diseases. “NECE is sort of a hub for a lot of projects that look at diff erent pesticides, diff erent tech- niques, and diff erent equipment that will fi ll capability gaps and shortfalls,” says Hoff man. “We also use our rela- tionships with agencies such as the [Centers for Disease Control and Pre- vention] and [the U.S. Department of Agriculture], as well as academia and industry, to leverage their experience and expertise to focus on reducing the incidence of disease.” NECE employs a staff of 36, which includes entomologists, formulation chemists, molecular biologists, agricultural engineers, and other specialists, all of whom are engaged in what Knapp calls “an arms race with insects.” One promising weapon in that

fi ght involves a technique called gene silencing, in which tiny pieces of RNA are inserted into an insect’s genes to shut down essential processes, killing the insect or preventing it from breed- ing. There’s also a study into chemi- cals that might help make humans essentially invisible to biting insects, and another looks at the use of wasps to detect bedbugs. “That’s not a totally new concept, we have bedbug-hunting dogs,” notes Knapp. “But it’s easier and cheaper to train wasps than it is to train dogs.” Advances made at NECE are employed throughout DoD and made available to the civilian sector.

Challenging enemy One of the greatest challenges facing NECE researchers is insects’ ability

INFOGRAPHIC: COLIN HAYES

Navy entomologists are working to deploy a gene silencing technique to combat mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes with altered genes would breed, passing throughout the population a gene that kills or disables adult females.

How it works

Pieces of RNA are inserted into a laboratory mosquito’s genes.

Females die. Adult male offspring — now

mosquitoes.

carrying the new gene — pass the gene to more

Hatchlings grow into normal larvae.

Male lab mosquitoes are then released. They mate and pass along the new gene that kills or disables adult females.

to rapidly evolve and develop a re- sistance to insecticides. “Insects are able to respond quickly because they have such a short generation time,” says Knapp. “To this day, there are a lot of insects that are resistant to DDT. It’s a challenge staying one step ahead of them as they evolve.” The varied environments in which

warfi ghters might be deployed — from tropical jungles to arid deserts — informs the work being done at NECE. Thankfully, almost everything its researchers need can be found in the U.S., observes Knapp. Key West, for example, is the perfect tropical environment. And when the unit was more engaged in Iraq and Afghani- stan, research often was conducted in the Coachella Valley region of Califor- nia because of its environmental simi- larity to those desert nations.

Recently, NECE entered into a

relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. pub- lic health arm, to become an inter- national collaboration center for equipment testing and evaluation, replacing a center in Great Britain that recently closed. “Getting this recognition from WHO opens relationships with experts that we may not have had before and off ers us the opportunity to test equipment that may have applications in what we do,” says Hoff man. “In addition, being ac- knowledged as a center of expertise by the world community validates our mission.”

MO

— Don Vaughan is a freelance writer based in North Carolina. His last feature article for Military Offi cer was “Pain Con- trol,” June 2015.

JULY 2015 MILITARY OFFICER 63