Patchara Sriwichai

Background: Entomological surveillance programmes need traps that perform reliably across vector taxa and ecological settings, and automated tools that reduce labour without compromising data quality. We evaluated BG-Pro trap configurations and the BG-Counter 2 against the standard CDC light trap (CDC-LT) across contrasting urban and rural ecologies in Thailand. Methods: We compared CDC light traps (CDC-LT) baited with CO₂, BG-Pro traps (BG-Lure + CO₂), and inverted BG-Pro traps (BG-Lure + CO₂) using a 3 × 3 Latin square design over 270 trap-days across two urban sites (Bangkok and Nakhon Pathom; Nov 2024–Mar 2025) and one rural malaria-endemic site (Tha Song Yang, Tak; Jul — Oct 2024). Trap performance was analysed using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs). The BG-Counter 2 accuracy was assessed over 60 trap-days by comparing automated with manual counts. Results: A total of 54,054 mosquitoes representing six genera were collected, dominated by Culex (77.6%). Across sites, BG-Pro produced the highest overall catches (urban mean 946.04; rural mean 13.29 mosquitoes/trap-day) and outperformed CDC-LT in both urban (IRR = 6.11) and rural (IRR = 2.64) settings, while the inverted BG-Pro traps captured the fewest mosquitoes. Genus-specific patterns were consistent across ecological settings: BG-Pro achieved the highest mean capture rates for Aedes (urban 8.3; rural 1.4 mosquitoes/trap-day) and Culex (urban 936.3; rural 8.3 mosquitoes/trap-day), indicating stronger performance for culicines relative to CDC-LT. In the rural site, overall captures of Anopheles minimus were very low across all traps, while CDC-LT sampled a broader range of anopheline taxa. The BG-Counter 2 median accuracy was high in urban sites (89.0%) but low in the rural site (20.6%), with the sensor overcounting mosquitoes on the majority of trap-days in both settings. Conclusions: No single trap optimally samples all vector groups across ecological settings. BG-Pro (BG-Lure + CO₂) showed promising utility for operational culicine surveillance in urban Thailand, whereas CDC-LT remains preferable for anopheline monitoring in rural malaria-risk settings. The BG-Counter 2 can support near-real-time trend monitoring in low-background urban environments but requires site-specific calibration before rural deployment. These findings support a context-specific surveillance strategy that combines complementary traps rather than relying on a single platform.

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Background: Dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) are primarily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. As most studies on vector competence have focused on Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus while neglecting other Aedes species, it is possible that the transmission risks might be underestimated. It is necessary to examine additional species that could potentially serve as competent vectors. This is particularly important considering the potential expansion of their geographical range due to climate change or species-specific vector reduction interventions. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we examined the infection kinetics and transmission potential of Aedes scutellaris from Thailand, comparing to Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. Our findings demonstrated that Ae. scutellaris and Ae. albopictus had lower rates of midgut infection compared to Ae. aegypti due to smaller blood meal sizes during feeding. However, once the infection has established Ae. scutellaris exhibited efficient replication of ZIKV and DENV1–4 in the midguts, secondary organs, and salivary glands. Notably, Ae. scutellaris had a low salivary gland escape barrier, with comparable transmissibility as Ae. aegypti when inoculated with the same viral load. Conclusion: This study highlights the potential of Ae. scutellaris as a vector for DENV and ZIKV and emphasizes the importance of considering neglected mosquito species in arbovirus transmission and surveillance efforts.

In the arboviral vector Aedes aegypti, adaptation to anthropogenic environments has led to a major evolutionary shift separating the domestic Aedes aegypti aegypti (Aaa) ecotype from the wild Aedes aegypti formosus (Aaf) ecotype. Aaa mosquitoes are distributed globally and have higher vectorial capacity than Aaf, which remained in Africa. Despite the evolutionary and epidemiological relevance of this separation, inconsistent morphological data and a complex population structure have hindered the identification of genomic signals distinguishing the two ecotypes. Here we assessed the correspondence between the geographic distribution, population structure and genome-wide selection of 511 Aaf and 123 Aaa specimens and report adaptive signals in 186 genes that we call Aaa molecular signatures. Our results indicate that Aaa molecular signatures arose from standing variation associated with extensive ancestral polymorphisms in Aaf populations and have been co-opted for self-domestication through genomic and functional redundancy and local adaptation. Overall, we show that the behavioural shift of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes to live in association with humans relied on the fine regulation of chemosensory, neuronal and metabolic functions, as seen in the domestication processes of rabbits and silkworms. Our results also provide a foundation for the investigation of new genic targets for the control of Ae. aegypti populations.

Mass ivermectin (IVM) treatment of livestock (MITL) is under consideration as a malaria control tool as IVM‐treated livestock are lethal to blood‐feeding Anopheles mosquitoes. MITL is routinely used as a prophylaxis in livestock to reduce the burden and transmission of helminth infections. Recently, there has been a shift in the veterinary IVM market in Southeast Asia wherein nearly all standard IVM formulations are now co‐formulated with clorsulon (CLO). CLO is used to treat the trematode liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica. Thus, the co‐administration of IVM and CLO simultaneously targets multiple livestock infections. Additionally, F. hepatica frequently afflicts human populations in endemic areas, making control of F. hepatica in livestock beneficial for One Health. CLO interrupts glycolysis in F. hepatica , but its potential effect against Anopheles mosquitoes has never been evaluated. Anopheles dirus mosquitoes were blood‐fed CLO across a range of concentrations (1–10,000 nM; 0.38–3807 ng/mL), and mosquito survival was monitored for 10 days. Co‐feeding experiments were also performed with An. dirus blood‐fed on IVM at two concentrations (4 and 6 ng/mL) without and with CLO corresponding to peak concentration in cattle ( C _max ) (2700 ng/mL) and five times the C _max (13,500 ng/mL), and mosquito survival was monitored for 10 days. CLO had no mosquito‐lethal effect on An. dirus . The IVM and CLO co‐feed experiment did not indicate any altered effect of IVM on mosquito survival when co‐fed with CLO. IVM‐CLO livestock co‐formulations would not likely alter the Anopheles mosquito‐lethal effect of MITL. The use of MITL‐CLO for malaria control would have health benefits for livestock, treating helminth and liver fluke infections, and additional One Health benefits by reducing transmission risk of liver flukes to humans.

Macaques are widely distributed in Thailand with remarkable adaptation to living close to humans in residential, religious sites, markets and tourist areas. They play an essential role in the persistence of pathogens in the environment. As reservoir hosts, they are exposed to hematophagous vectors that secrete saliva, a cocktail of bioactive molecules including antigenic components stimulating host antibody production. Subsequent to the detection of mosquito‐borne pathogens in macaques living in national parks, we aimed to determine the seroprevalence of antibodies to crude salivary gland extracts (SGEs) from culicine mosquitoes ( Aedes aegypti [Linnaeus, 1762], Ae. albopictus [Skuse, 1895] and Culex quinquefasciatus [Say, 1823]) and compare individual titres between macaque species/national parks (33, Macaca arctoides [I. Geoffroy Saint‐Hilaire, 1831] [Primates: Cercopithecidae] from Kaeng Krachan, 23 M. leonina leonina [Blyth, 1863] [Primates: Cercopithecidae] from Khao Yai and four M. fascicularis [Raffles, 1821] [Primates: Cercopithecidae] from Mu Ko Ranong). The anti‐mosquito SGE antibodies found in 60 macaques from three national parks indicate varying levels of host‐vector exposure. Macaque antibody titres were high against culicine mosquitoes. However, the significant difference among national parks (or macaque species) was only observed against Cx. quinquefasciatus. Correlation analysis of titres between Aedes SGE and arboviruses revealed a significantly more intense immune response against Ae. albopictus in DENV3‐positive M. arctoides. Current findings support the concept of salivary biomarkers using accessible SGE, available from mosquito colonies of interest . However, we observed cross‐reactivity between Aedes species because of crude SGE containing species‐shared proteins. Nevertheless, a potential risk of pathogen transmission is emphasised between national park visitors and macaques via mosquitoes as bridge vectors. This information contributes to preventive measures against mosquito bites, including those implemented in tourist areas.

In order to assess risk of mosquito-vector borne disease and to effectively target and monitor vector control efforts, accurate information about mosquito vector population densities is needed. The traditional and still most common approach to this involves the use of traps along with manual counting and classification of mosquito species, but the costly and labor-intensive nature of this approach limits its widespread use. Numerous previous studies have sought to address this problem by developing machine learning models to automatically identify species and sex of mosquitoes based on their wingbeat sounds. Yet little work has addressed the issue of robust classification in the presence of environmental background noise, which is essential to making the approach practical. In this paper, we propose a new deep learning model, MosquitoSong+, to identify the species and sex of mosquitoes from raw wingbeat sounds so that it is robust to the environmental noise and the relative volume of the mosquito’s flight tone. The proposed model extends the existing 1D-CNN model by adjusting its architecture and introducing two data augmentation techniques during model training: noise augmentation and wingbeat volume variation. Experiments show that the new model has very good generalizability, with species classification accuracy above 80% on several wingbeat datasets with various background noise. It also has an accuracy of 93.3% for species and sex classification on wingbeat sounds overlaid with various background noises. These results suggest that the proposed approach may be a practical means to develop classification models that can perform well in the field.

Background: Dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) are primarily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. As most studies on vector competence have focused on Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus while neglecting other Aedes species, it is possible that the transmission risks might be underestimated. it is necessary to examine additional species that could potentially serve as competent vectors. This is particularly important considering the potential expansion of their geographical range due to climate change or species-specific vector reduction interventions. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we examined the infection kinetics and transmission potential of Aedes scutellaris from Thailand, comparing to Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus . Our findings demonstrated that Ae. scutellaris and Ae. albopictus had lower rates of midgut infection compared to Ae. aegypti due to smaller blood meal sizes during feeding. However, once the infection has established Ae. scutellaris exhibited efficient replication of ZIKV and DENV1-4 in the midguts, secondary organs, and salivary glands. Notably, Ae. scutellaris had a low salivary gland escape barrier, with comparable transmissibility as Ae. aegypti when inoculated with the same viral load. Conclusion: This study highlights the potential of Ae. scutellaris as a vector for DENV and ZIKV and emphasizes the importance of considering neglected mosquito species in arbovirus transmission and surveillance efforts. Author Summary: Dengue and Zika are viral infections caused by arthropod-borne flaviviruses, and spread primarily through the bite of infected Aedes mosquitoes. Most research on DENV and ZIKV transmission has primarily focused on Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus while other Aedes species are overlooked, thus the epidemiology of the transmission might be underestimated. With climate change together with species-specific mosquito population reduction interventions these neglected Aedes species could become increasingly important in sustaining virus transmission. In this study, we examined Aedes scutellaris , a mosquito species that co-habitats with Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus , to assess its ability to transmit DENV and ZIKV using a combination of blood feeding and intrathoracic injection methods. Our findings show that although Ae. scutellaris had lower initial infection rates due to smaller blood meals, DENV and ZIKV were able to replicate and transmit at levels comparable to Ae. aegypti when exposed to similar virus loads. This highlights the need to study a broader range of species to improve virus control and outbreak prevention strategies.