Estimating Aedes albopictus biting females by ovitrap surveillance data in an area at high-risk of exotic arbovirus introduction

Estimates of Aedes albopictus abundance and biting rates are essential to account for vector-human contact and to predict nuisance threshold and risk of arbovirus autochthonous transmission useful for correct planning of mosquito control interventions. Novel approaches to monitor this daytime and outdoor biting mosquito and assess its abundance and biting rates are deeply needed, as current methods have low effectiveness and/or are expensive and/or difficult to be implemented in large scale. In 2016 Aedes albopictus reproductive season, we focused on the development of two non-conventional approaches to monitor Ae. albopictus abundance and biting rates. The first approach is represented by a mobile application named ZANZAMAPP which allows users to easily record geo-referenced reports of spotted mosquitoes including basic information on time, indoor/outdoor location and number of bites. Analysis of the provided records (>10.000 in the first 2 months) has the potential to provide a dynamic spatial map of mosquito abundance and human perception of mosquito nuisance in Italy. Once optimized and validated it could represent a cheap and effective way for public administration to gather information relevant for the planning of mosquito control, provided that they engage themselves in the promotion of ZANZAMAPP use by their citizens. The second approach is a citizen science pilot project in which we involved students of the Faculty of Medicine of Sapienza University in the monitoring of Ae. albopictus, by providing them with a sticky-trap patented by our research group and asking them to: i) report number, species and gender of weekly collected specimens; ii) send us by mobile phone photos of the sticky sheets for double-check of specimens identifications; and iii) fill a simple questionnaire on their perception of mosquito nuisance in the week preceding each collection. Analysis of the provided information will allow to assess whether non-experienced people with a short training can effectively contribute to a capillary monitoring of the species and provide the basis for a larger citizen science project in future years. The talk will focus on the description and preliminary results of both these two novel approaches and highlight their potential to complement entomological surveillance of Ae. albopictus.