Professor Basil Brooke is head of the vector control reference laboratory at the Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases. His research efforts have focused on an array of genetic and biometric issues related to the development, inheritance, expression, relative stability, and pleiotropic effects of insecticide resistance in African malaria vector species. This work has been applied to the development of strategies designed to maintain effective malaria vector control in the face of insecticide resistance, particularly in the southern African region. He has also been integrally involved in the assessment of new malaria vector control products and alternative methods of vector control.

Detecting and understanding the epidemiological consequences of insecticide resistance and other important phenotypes in malaria vectors forms an important component of the research support needed for South Africa’s drive toward malaria elimination. Boosting control effectiveness towards elimination requires a vector surveillance system that allows for the collation of data on vector species distribution, resting and biting behavior, and the occurrence of insecticide resistance in malaria affected regions. Professor Brooke and his colleagues are in the process of setting up projects to boost malaria vector surveillance in South Africa by assessing the merits of a series of passive and active vector collection and trapping techniques in those provinces that experience seasonal malaria transmission, and in which indoor residual spraying-based vector control is conducted annually. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London and Chairperson of the Vector Control Subcommittee and South Africa Elimination Committee.