Suwannapa Ninphanomchai

Arbovirus diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, are important public health problems. Controlling the major vector, Aedes aegypti, is the only approach to suppressing these diseases. The surveillance of this mosquito species needs effective collecting methods. In this study, a simple MosHouse sticky trap was evaluated in a semi-field condition. Our results demonstrated the efficiency of this trap in collecting Ae. aegypti males, and no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the numbers of males was detected when compared with the widely used BG- Sentinel trap. However, there were significantly lower numbers of females (p < 0.05) collected using the MosHouse trap when compared to the BG-Sentinel trap. We also found a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the collected numbers between irradiated and non-irradiated males. More irradiated males were collected in the MosHouse traps. The improvement of male collection was achieved with the addition of a sugar stick and sticky flags. Significantly higher numbers of males were collected in the MosHouse trap with sticky flags compared to the original one when they were released independently of females, but both were collected in higher numbers when they were released together (p < 0.05). In conclusion, our experiments demonstrated that the MosHouse trap could sample Ae. aegypti, especially males, as efficiently as the established BG-Sentinel trap, while the cost was more than 50 times lower, showing the potential of the MosHouse trap for improved Ae. aegypti male and female surveillance with very large numbers of traps at affordable costs. In addition, significantly (p < 0.001) increased male sampling was achieved by adding an external sticky flag on the MosHouse trap, providing an avenue for further development of the novel male-trapping strategy.

The sterile insect technique (SIT), which is based on irradiation-induced sterility, and incompatible insect technique (IIT), which is based on Wolbachia-induced cytoplasmic incompatibility (a kind of male sterility), have been used as alternative methods to reduce mosquito vector populations. Both methods require the release of males to reduce fertile females and suppress the number of natural populations. Different techniques of sex separation to obtain only males have been investigated previously. Our work involves an application of mechanical larval-pupal glass separators to separate Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti males from females at the pupal stage, prior to irradiation, and for use in a pilot field release and to assess the quality of males and females before and after sex separation and sterilization. This study was the first to demonstrate the efficiency of mechanical glass separators in separating males for use in an Ae. aegypti suppression trial by a combined SIT/IIT approach. Our results indicated that male and female pupae of Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti mosquitoes were significantly different (p < 0.05) in weight, size, and emergence-time, which made it easier for sex separation by this mechanical method. During the pilot field release, the percentage of female contamination was detected to be quite low and significantly different between the first (0.10 ± 0.13) and the second (0.02 ± 0.02) twelve-week period. Both males and females were almost completely sterile after exposure to 70 Gy irradiation dose. We observed that both irradiated Wolbachia-infected males and females survived and lived longer than two weeks, but males could live longer than females (p < 0.05) when they were irradiated at the same irradiation dose. When comparing irradiated mosquitoes with non-irradiated ones, there was no significant difference in longevity and survival-rate between those males, but non-irradiated females lived longer than irradiated ones (p < 0.05). Mechanical sex separation by using a larval-pupal glass separator was practically applied to obtain only males for further sterilization and open field release in a pilot population suppression trial of Ae. aegypti in Thailand. Female contamination was detected to be quite low, and skilled personnel can reduce the risk for female release. The irradiated Wolbachia-infected females accidentally released were found to be completely sterile, with shorter life span than males.

Dengue and malaria are vector-borne diseases and major public health problems worldwide. Changes in climatic factors influence incidences of these diseases. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between vector-borne disease incidences and meteorological data, and hence to predict disease risk in a global outreach tourist setting. The retrospective data of dengue and malaria incidences together with local meteorological factors (temperature, rainfall, humidity) registered from 2001 to 2011 on Koh Chang, Thailand were used in this study. Seasonal distribution of disease incidences and its correlation with local climatic factors were analyzed. Seasonal patterns in disease transmission differed between dengue and malaria. Monthly meteorological data and reported disease incidences showed good predictive ability of disease transmission patterns. These findings provide a rational basis for identifying the predictive ability of local meteorological factors on disease incidence that may be useful for the implementation of disease prevention and vector control programs on the tourism island, where climatic factors fluctuate.