A preventive medicine team from Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit 7 in Rota, Spain, spent two weeks chasing insects across the desert in Djibouti as part of an ecological survey of Camp Lemonnier.

NEPMU-7 team members, Lt. Cmdr. Connie Johnson, entomologist, and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Jay Cherluck, preventive medicine technician, participated in the bug chase at Camp Lemonnier and surrounding areas that was led by scientists from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Feb. 10-26.

The survey was conducted to support the development of the installation's Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP) and supplement the Camp Lemonnier Airfield Bird Airstrike Hazard (BASH) program. The program allows Naval forces to effectively conduct operations in an environmentally responsible and increase aircraft safety through prevention of wildlife related mishaps.

The NEPMU-7 Entomology Team, or "bug chasers" as they are commonly known, normally focus on insects and arachnids that are either venomous or capable of transmitting disease. Always on their radar is the most dangerous insect in the world, the mosquito, an insect responsible for millions of human deaths worldwide by spreading diseases such as Malaria. This was a unique opportunity and a change of pace for the team to collect other insects.

"While it was fun to collect beetles and butterflies I'd never seen before, the important point of this work was that it was part of a comprehensive survey of plants and animals that encompasses the entire food web, from the plants that insects feed upon to the top predators. Knowledge of who-eats-who is vital in the management of wildlife hazards to aircraft," said Johnson.

According to the FAA, over 13,000 strikes involving wildlife occur annually, 97 percent of the reported strikes involve birds. The strikes cost over $200 million in losses, 172 thousand hours in aircraft downtime and over a 24-year period from 1990-2014 resulted in 223 injuries and 288 human fatalities.

The INRMP and BASH program are reviewed annually with periodic surveys conducted as needed by biologists with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. This recent survey effort utilized the expertise of a team of Smithsonian scientists including Carla Dove, program manager for the museum's Division of Birds, who not only led the expedition but also serves as the DoD and FAA expert in forensic examinations of suspected bird strikes. Dove's team can identify a bird species from a single feather and confirm the identification through comparison with an ever increasing library of DNA samples with many additions collected on the recent expedition.

"The Djibouti expedition is a perfect example of inter-agency collaboration working together to benefit a variety of disciplines," said Dove. "Not only are we increasing our knowledge of the flora, fauna and disease vectors for the benefit of the U.S. Navy, but we are also contributing to baseline data for the Djiboutian government and providing samples for researchers worldwide."

At the end of the monthlong collection effort, NEPMU-7 joined The Smithsonian Institute to advertise the results of the study at a show and tell hosted by Camp Lemonnier.

Over 500 military and DoD personnel attended to see samples of the specimens that were collected over the month. In total the Smithsonian-led expedition preserved 75 species of bird, 18 species of mammals, 29 species of reptiles, 14 plant specimens and over 1,600 arthropods including several species of spider, scorpion and insect.

All specimens will be housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and available for use in research worldwide.

NEPMU-7 entomology provides force health protection through expert guidance in vector surveillance and control to both shore-based and forward deployed preventive medicine personnel throughout Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia.

For more information visit NEPMU-7's website: http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/nepmu-7/Pages/default.aspx

For more news from Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, visit www.navy.mil/.